Mumbai: Transporters across Maharashtra have threatened to go on strike from midnight on March 5, warning that nearly 100,000 vehicles from across the state will converge at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) because their demands to rectify the e-challan system have been ignored.
At a meeting held on Friday, transport unions decided that heavy vehicles, autorickshaws, taxis and app-based aggregator cabs will gather at Azad Maidan. They said that the government has failed to stand by and implement the assurances it had given them about the e-challan system.
Office-bearers of the Maharashtra Transporters Action Committee said if the government fails to listen to their demands, they will shut down operations indefinitely. They added that the agitation could gradually even expand into a nationwide movement.
The Mumbai Bus Owners’ Association president Harsh Kotak said, “For a vehicle worth ₹40,000, an e-challan of ₹80,000 is being imposed. How can transporters bear such an unjust burden? Is the government pushing us to the brink of suicide like farmers? We met the government several times, but received only assurances. Now there will be no more discussions, only direct action.”
The unions also warned that if vehicles are stopped by the authorities during the protest, drivers will abandon their vehicles on the roads leading to roadblocks across the city. Transporters alleged that the legal provision requiring cases to be sent to court within 90 days, failing which they should be dismissed, is not being followed. They also claimed that despite the government’s announcement about shutting border check posts, e-challan collections are allegedly continuing.
Prasanna Patwardhan, president of the Maharashtra Transporters Action Committee, said, “The transporters and their drivers will also begin wearing black flags with posters on their heavy vehicles.” He added that this is not just a transporters’ protest but a movement of all vehicle owners. “Drivers of rickshaws, taxis, buses, and private cars are all affected by the e-challans and its stringent rules. Therefore, this is a people’s movement,” Patwardhan said, appealing to the public to support the agitation.