Truckers end strike over hit-and-run law after meeting with Union Home Secretary

Truckers on Tuesday decided to suspend their protests over hit-and-run law after the government said the new provisions had not been implemented yet. Earlier this evening, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla held a discussion with representatives from the All India Motor Transport Congress. 

"Govt wants to say that the new rule has not been implemented yet, we all want to say that before implementing Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 106/2, we will have a discussion with All India Motor Transport Congress representatives, and then only we will take a decision," Bhalla said. 

The All India Motor Transport Congress said the central government has kept the ten years of punishment and fine that was imposed in the hit-and-run case on hold. "Until the next meeting of the All India Motor Transport Congress is held no laws will be imposed," said Amrit Lal Madan, President of All India Motor Transport Congress. 

Truckers were protesting against some of the provisions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC). The new law says, "Whoever causes death of any person by rash and negligent driving of vehicle not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting it to a police officer or a Magistrate soon after the incident, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine."

Truck drivers expressed their dissatisfaction with this stringent provision and went on strike in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra truck drivers staged "rasta roko" protests at many places, raising the spectre of a shortage of fuel in some places. As per officials, truck drivers briefly blocked traffic on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in the Mira Bhayandar area in Thane district.