Refusing to be arm-twisted by striking truckers across the country, five states have invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to ensure the supply of primary commodities. Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh invoked the act through notification issued by their state governments on Thursday. The move comes three days after truckers went on strike on January 5.

This is the second time in six months that transporters have gone on strike. “Government cannot be threatened like this. We have spoken to them three or four times but there is no point on which they are willing to relent,” secretary road transport and highways Brahm Dutt told reporters late in the evening today.

With governments having invoked ESMA, truckers can be arrested and their vehicles can be run by the government to keep the supply of essential commodities moving. “Cancellation of permits will only be a mild action in this scenario. State governments may employ drivers to run their vehicles and arrest striking truckers without a warrant,” Dutt said.

Maharashtra state government has also conveyed to the Centre that it may invoke ESMA if the strike leads to lawlessness in the state. Under the provisions of this Act, any person who commences a strike, which is illegal as per the Act, will be punished with imprisonment up to six months or fine up to Rs 1,000 or both.

Moreover, the government says that transporters are misleading the people by spreading mis-information on toll. “We have not raised toll rates for any of the existing government funded projects even though a revision was due. A new toll policy has been finalised on December 5, 2008, but it is only applicable to future projects,” Dutt said. As far as service tax in concerned the finance ministry has already notified the exemption on their sub contractors, which was promised during the July strike.

... contd.