Truckers strike continues in Himachal
October 20th, 2010 - 8:03 pm ICT by IANSShimla, Oct 20 (IANS) Talks between truckers and Ambuja Cement over the hike in freight charges Wednesday failed to break the 13-day-long strike in Himachal Pradesh.
“We have not been able to solve the issue so far. We are still on the job,” Principal Secretary, Transport, T.G. Negi told reporters.
The talks had taken place at the initiative of the state government. Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has constituted a committee to end the deadlock.
More than 3,000 truckers are on strike, refusing to lift goods of Ambuja Cement from its two units in Darlaghat in Solan district, 45 km from here.
“We are demanding freight charges for transporting clinker and cement at the rate of Rs.925 per tonne against the prevailing Rs.478 per tonne,” said Ram Kishan Sharma, a spokesperson for the truckers.
A Ambuja official said the strke has severely affected the normal production at the two units.
“The company has not been able to function at its normal pace since the strike began Oct 7. The strike piled up stocks of about 40,000 tonnes of cement bags and 195,000 tonnes of clinker,” he added.
The two plants in the state account for about 2.8 million tonnes of the cement production of the company that is 13 percent of the company’s total annual capacity of 22 million tonnes. The company has a capacity to produce three million tonnes per annum in Himachal Pradesh.
The company official refused to divulge any details of the exact financial loss to the company due to the strike.
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Tags: cement bags, cement production, chief minister, clinker, deadlock, freight charges, initiative, job, negi, oct 7, pace, plants, principal secretary, shimla, spokesperson, state government, stocks, tonne, tonnes, truckers strike