Chennai: To protest the continued smuggling of mineral resources, trucks will go on a three-day strike starting tomorrow, said Yuvaraj, president of the federation of Tamil Nadu state sand truck owners’ associations.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai about this, he said: Mineral resources are being smuggled continuously because trucks are being overloaded beyond the permitted weight of 22 tons, up to 30 tons.
Bribes are being collected through the RTO and the police to allow the extra load. This is causing huge losses to the government and the public.
During the first 3 months after this government took office, there was no bribery or mineral looting of any kind.
But now, just like the previous government, bribery is once again changing hands under this government as well. Mineral theft in the hills is continuing unchecked. Many brokers from the RDO are demanding bribes from us ahead of the Diwali festival.
They are threatening us to send it through GPay. Even if this is brought to the attention of the mineral resources department official, no action has been taken so far. Although it was said that systems like GPS and e-way bills would be introduced to prevent mineral smuggling, they have not been fully implemented.
In the last two meetings, they said that GPS devices would be changed. But that too has not been implemented.
As a result, to bring these issues to the Chief Minister’s attention, lorries will go on strike for 3 days starting tomorrow (Nov. 1).
Accordingly, 20,000 lorries in 8 districts will not operate. To curb mineral resources, strict rules like those in Andhra and Karnataka states should be introduced. He said this.
