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.

Despite the government’s tough stand, truckers remained adamant on continuing with the strike. “We have not yet been contacted by the government for any further negotiations. We demanded a relief package from the government, but in return we have got ESMA,” said Charan Singh Lohara, president, All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC).

“In Tamil Nadu, around 5,000 petrol tankers and 3,000 edible oil carriers have joined the stir. In Maharashtra, around 10,000 tankers have extended support to the agitation,” said R Sukumar, spokesperson (south), AIMTC.

Meanwhile, the submission of permits by the transport operators is going on. Around 1,500 permits were submitted and vehicles surrendered to the financers on Wednesday.

“We are in the process of submitting the permits to the respective state governments. We will submit permits and surrender around 20,000 vehicles in a week’s time,” said Kultaran Singh, president, Truck Owners’ Welfare Society.