BANGALORE: Federation of Karnataka State Lorry Owners and Agents Association, along with lorry, tanker, tourist taxi and other transport associations, said they would go on an indefinite strike from the wee hours of June 1, if the state government failed to withdraw its notification on the compulsory installation of speed governors. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, federation president G R Shanmugappa, said, “All the commercial vehicles, including lorries and tempos, will go off the roads across the state. As per the powers exercised by Rule 118 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, it is left to the state government’s discretion to decide on the installation of speed governors.” Shanmugappa questioned, why was the state government keen on implementing this rule which has not been implemented anywhere in the country? He said this indicates a strong lobby by the manufacturers of speed governors. He pointed out, “In 2008, the state government had revised the speed limits in its report, where 100 kmph and 80 kmph were the speed limits for six-lane and four-lane national highways and 60kmph for state highways. Then the necessity of the speed governor is not justified.” Ravishankar Rao Mahadic, president of Bangalore City Lorry Transporting Agents’ Association said, “About 11 lakh commercial vehicles will not ply if the notification is implemented. The whole transport system will paralyse, as the order applies to other states’ vehicles entering the state.” Also the lorry owners opposed the restriction of goods vehicles for four hours, from 8 am to 11 am and 4 pm to 6 pm. “This is causing a lot of inconvenience to vehicles in the city sub-urbans. Also, we request to facilitate the payment of life-time tax for new vehicles in 7-8 years’ installments,” Ravishankar said.
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