Bara, September 18

The public transport system was partially affected across the country due to an agitation launched by Nepal Free Vehicle Drivers’ Struggle Committee against the new Transport Management Act 2018.

The committee launched the struggle today saying that the Act was against the interest of transport workers.  The committee said they would not ply their vehicles unless their demands were met. It has urged drivers across the country not to ply their vehicles.

Addressing drivers across the country from Simara, Bara, the struggle committee central coordinator Basant Sharma said they would not ply vehicles until the government amended transport laws that treated drivers as criminals.   Sharma demanded that the Act be amended as it had made drivers criminals and included punishment of up to life imprisonment.

Sharma said drivers across the country had launched protest programmes spontaneously without patronage from any political party.

Co-coordinator Arjun Adhikari said that laws and provisions mentioned in the Act should be amended as they had treated drivers as culprits.  Adhikari said that they would be forced to submit their licences to the government and change their profession. He said they would not obstruct people who ply their vehicles though. He urged drivers to stop driving their vehicles on their own and support the agitation.

After the drivers parked their vehicles and started their struggle, public vehicles stayed off the road in Bara, Parsa and Rautahat, among other districts. Only a few vehicles and school buses plied today. The provision in the new transport Act has it that a driver who causes an accident with the intention of taking someone’s life will face life imprisonment.

The struggle committee, however, said that drivers have never harboured the intention of killing someone.

According to Coordinator Sharma, they have halted transport after submitting a 13-point charter of demands to the prime minister and other concerned government agencies. Owing to the agitation, small and big vehicles stayed off the road in Dhanusha, Saptari, Sunsari, Morang and Panchthar districts.