ANGUL: Truckers of Talcher have threatened to stop coal transport by rail from January 11 if their demand to allot more coal for transportation in trucks is not fulfilled by the administration.A memorandum to this effect was submitted by truck owners to the Angul Collector on Monday. Besides, hundreds of truckers took out a rally and held a meeting at the collectorate. A delegation later met Collector seeking his intervention in the matter.
General secretary of Talcher Truck Owners’ Association Dillip Pani said a total of 10,000 trucks are engaged in coal transportation from Talcher Coalfield to various industries across the State. Of these, 6,000 trucks are owned by residents of Talcher. “Now, industries have started to receive coal by rail instead of trucks. As a result, trucks have been rendered idle and more than 25,000 families dependent on coal transport by road are facing difficulties.
Besides, most of the truck owners are land oustees,” Pani said and added that several missives to both the State and Central governments as well as Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) in this regard have yielded no result. “If the administration fails to meet our demand, we will be forced to stop coal transport by rail from January 11,” Pani added.