About 15 mini-trucks carrying vegetables and fruits blocked the road and entrance to the Chinthamani Co-operative Super Market in R S Puram protesting against a police sub-inspector who has been fining them heavily for overloading. They claimed that they were forced to overload due to the lack of parking spaces in the Thyagi Kumaran Market.
Almost 12 to 15 mini-trucks were parked in and around the North Coimbatore Junction on Monday morning, after a fellow truck driver was arrested by a traffic sub-inspector at the spot. "They have arrested one of our drivers, named Hussain. He has been falsely charged as he argued with the traffic inspector after being fined for overloading," said the secretary of the Road Transport Union, A M Rafique. "This is the third time in the last two weeks that almost 10 of our vegetable transport vehicles are being caught by him for overloading," he said. "He also levies unaffordable fines ranging from Rs1,000 to Rs7,000," he added.
According to the truckers, they have an 'unspoken agreement' with officials regarding overloading to an extent. "It is a known fact that there is inadequate parking facility for loading vehicles in Thyagi Kumaran (TK) coming to offload vegetables and fruits from the wholesale MGR Market," said Rafique, who led the protest.
Mostly 10 to 12 shops owners pool in money and hire one of these mini-trucks to carry about 300kg to 400kg more than the usual load. "Since the entry into TK Market is narrow, only smaller vehicles can be hired to transport the goods. And for a ride that pays us hardly Rs200, we end up paying a fine of upto Rs7,000," he added.
After an hour, the truck drivers met the assistant commissioner (West zone) of police and the R S Puram police station inspector and stated their complaint. "They have promised to take up the issue to the deputy commissioner (traffic) and sort out the issue with the sub-inspector in question," said Rafique. The traffic deputy commissioner said he was yet to get full details about the issue. The truck drivers moved the vehicles after an hour and half.