Covid-19: Truckers demand Rs 50 lakh insurance in meeting with govt

At a meeting with the transport ministry through video conference, transporters sought safeguards including Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for those engaged in the supply chain and free medical treatment for those who test positive for the virus.

The Centre reached out to road transporters on Friday to resolve problems being faced by stranded truck drivers during the coronavirus lockdown so that essential supplies reach their destinations.At a meeting with the transport ministry through video conference, transporters sought safeguards including Rs 50 lakh insurance cover for those engaged in the supply chain and free medical treatment for those who test positive for the virus.

Trucks will be sanitized and their drivers will undergo screening at the loading and unloading poingts and also every 200 kilometres along the highways, under one recommendation by the ministry. (REUTERS)

“We have been in touch with various transport associations since the lockdown and have assured government support. We have remained in touch with the home ministry and are tracking issues with the movements of goods. A decision on the demand for insurance cover will be taken soon,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity.

Trucks will be sanitized and their drivers will undergo screening at the loading and unloading poingts and also every 200 kilometres along the highways, under one recommendation by the ministry. Testing stations and screening of drivers has been suggested at strategic locations.

Transporters have also asked the government to allow five drivers to travel in one truck with their driving licenses deemed as valid passes to enable them to reach transportation centres.

Minister of state for road transport and highways Gen VK Singh (retd), transport secretary Sanjeev Ranjan and other senior ministry officials attended the meeting via conference with the apex road transport body All India Motor Transport Congress.

“The movement of essential goods to the remotest corner of the country could get jeopardised due to restricted mobility of the drivers, first, due to lack of means of transportation and secondly due to stringent lockdown measures of certain hotspot areas by local administrations, which are also hubs of the {truck} driver community, like Mewat in Haryana,” said Kultaran Singh Atwal, president, AIMTC.

A location suggested for the screening of drivers includes NH 1, Palwal in Haryana, a gateway to Mewat that is home thousands of truck drivers.

“We have apprised the minister of challenges like non-percolation of the directives of the home ministry to the enforcement personnel at the ground level; scarcity of drivers, our efforts in counselling and motivating them and how to motivate the drivers to come back and mitigate fear psychosis,” Atwal said.

Tens of thousands of trucks have been left stranded across state borders since the lockdown took effect on March 25. The government has issued several advisories to state chief secretaries that movement of both essential and non-essential goods be allowed, seeking to avoid shortages.

“ We have to work to avert another major crisis of disruption of supply chain of essential commodities across the country. Several interventions are needed to encourage the labour workforce and drivers to return,” Singh said.

Hindustan Times on Friday reported that prices of key staples, barring cereals, have surged nearly three times from a month ago because of a noticeable supply shock amid the three-week nationwide lockdown.