Taxi drivers, truckers call off stir over speed governors

The associations of lorry owners, tourist taxis, maxicabs and school vans have called off their strike which was scheduled for Friday.

In a late-evening development, the associations of commercial vehicles retracted from their stands after the Transport Department relaxed their regulations temporarily.

Earlier, the department had passed a decree making speed governors mandatory for all the aforementioned vehicles in the State.

Transport Department Commissioner Shyam Bhat said “We have given old commercial vehicle owners six months time to comply with the government order concerning speed governors. With the new vehicles already implementing the speed governors since November 2, 2011, the matter stands resolved for now,” he said.

Confirming this, the Bangalore Tourist Taxi Operators Association (BTTOA) office-bearer, Radhakrishna Holla said the associations had agreed to the decision and had decided to cancel their strike. 

“On account of the bandh on Thursday, several IT companies and other firms appealed for us to take back our strike call as it would hamper operations. In order to ensure that there is no problem to citizens we have decided to call off the strike,” Holla said. 

On imposing lifetime tax on all tourist cabs, it is said that the matter will be referred to the Assembly when the Monsoon session begins in July.

Calls for a strike fell into play after an initial protest by members of the Federation of Karnataka Lorry Owners’ Association who on May 23 gave the State government at ultimatum: complete withdrawal of proposed speed governors. Within days, they had been joined by other vehicle associations including taxi operators, who decided to go off road on Friday.

The speed governors, which are not mandated in other states, have been made compulsory in Karnataka.

Association office-bearers complain that use of the governors will hamper the movement of trucks across the State.