Pics: Jeevan D'Costa

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (EP)

Udupi, Sep 27: The owners and drivers of lorries and tempos transporting building construction materials have resorted to indefinite protests condemning the policies of the district administration and the government. They have parked their lorries and tempos on both sides of the national highways at Udyavar, Katpady, Brahmavar, Kota, Sastan and Byndoor on Wednesday September 27.

Raghavendra Shetty Katpady, president of the protesting building construction material transporters association said expressing anguish that the lorry owners are put to hardship by cases being slapped in the name of one state one GPS, irregularities in issue of permits and passing of new rules by the district administration all of a sudden. “The protests are likely to hit the construction industry as the protests are likely to continue till the issues are solved.”

Raghavendra Shetty said that this is the problem of the government and the concerned departments. “If owners and drivers of lorries are businessmen, who are you? Why did the previous officers not take action about these things earlier? Why was the disciplined permit system not followed for so many years? Can we print permits like fake currency notes? Why do you make us scapegoats? Cases are being registered against lorry owners and drivers. Everybody will face problems if building materials are not available. The charges for a load of gravel have been increased to Rs 20,000 instead of Rs 10,000 earlier. The district administration is directly responsible for it. We cannot see the way from here on. We will resort to movement by parking all of our vehicles in front of the police station asking us to arrest if lorry owners are harassed.”

“The government and the district administration have forced us to come to the streets. We will continue the protests until we get justice or till we die,” he said.