PRIVATE TRANSPORTERS

Transporters operating in Jammu and Kashmir have urged the authorities to allow them to resume their services so that they can pay their debts and also make it possible for their families to survive. Authorities have been trying to be lax with transporters in the past one year as the private transport did not operate in Jammu and Kashmir post August 5, last year due to heavy security clampdown.

Transporters have recently approached the media and have said that they were ready to follow the guidelines while operating their vehicles during the pandemic. They expressed surprise that while the government has allowed trade to resume but they were not allowing private transporters to earn their livelihood.

Transporters are at the verge of collapse as most of them have loans from different financial institutions and have failed to pay their monthly EMI’s to the banks. Now they have to struggle for survival along with their families as they have no other means of income to sustain their life.

In such a situation, the UT administration should have intervened with some cash to such families but now they are forcing them to come on the streets and voice their concerns about the plight and the attitude of the authorities towards their problems.

Recently many associations of transporters in Kashmir valley tried to stage a protest but police did not allow them but at the same time they could communicate to the authorities through the media about their problems and are waiting for a response from the administration.