Daijiworld News Network - Udupi (GA)

Udupi, Aug 4: After a week-long speculation about 1,200 ore-laden lorries that were stranded at the district border were given permission to enter the district to unload ore at New Mangalore Port on Thursday August 3 evening.

It was decided in a meeting convened by the district-in-charge minister Dr V S Acharya on Thursday.  Accordingly the ore-laden trucks stranded at the district border were allowed to pass through as a one time concession.  More than 1,200 trucks were allowed to cross the district in small batches.  Thus by 3 am on Friday August 4 almost all the trucks were cleared. With this the week-long tug-of-war between the administration and lorry owners and drivers came to a temporary end.

As reported earlier it was decided to stop all the ore-laden lorries from entering the district during the KDP meet in the last week. The decision was taken in view of bad state of roads and bridges in the district.

 The order came into effect from Sunday July 30 and thereafter about 1200 vehicles were stranded at the border of Udupi from Shiroor to Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district.  However, the lorry driver and owners had threatened to stage protest and pour ore in front of Dr V S Acharya's house.

On the other hand the situation of the drivers who were stranded on the highway was pathetic.  While some of them did not have enough money to buy food, some of them even took ill.   The stalemate continued for 4 days, when finally a meeting comprising of all the district officials, MLA's, Truck Owners Association, and Consumers Forum was convened by the district-in-charge minister.

After an assurance was received from the truck owners that they would not resort to overloading henceforth and also set up a Weigh Bridge at the district border to get their trucks weighed before entering the district, it was decided to allow the stranded trucks to pass through the district as a one time measure.