May 25, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19, 1429

HYDERABAD, May 24: The Hyderabad chapter of the Mushtarika Goods Transport Owners Association warned on Saturday that they would observe strike for an indefinite period from May 31, if excesses against vehicles owners were not stopped.

The leaders of the association said at a news conference at the press club that the commission agents of goods transport companies were fleecing transport owners.

They said that each truck owner was paying Rs24,800 a month to the government in the shape of various taxes, including toll tax, but the government was doing nothing to solve their problems.

They said that the Adda owners were charging between Rs4,000 to Rs9,000 per truck as commission in Hyderabad whereas in Karachi, the rate was only between Rs500 to Rs700 per truck. Not only this, but the Adda owners were also charging Rs1,800 to Rs1,900 per truck for loading goods, they said.

The goods transport owners were already groaning under the weight of price hike. Although fuel prices had increased manifold but not a penny had been increased in the transport charges, they complained.

They said that they had tried to solve the issue through negotiation with Adda owners but failed and demanded that the government should intervene and fix reasonable commission and labour charges, reduce fuel prices and increase fare of goods transport.

They warned that if their genuine problems were not solved, they would resort to indefinite strike with effect from May 31.

To a question, they said that the members of the association owned 300 loading trucks in Hyderabad. There were only 20 registered commission agents of goods transport companies in Hyderabad but more than 100 unregistered companies were also engaged in this business, they said.