Solan, Dec 14 (KNN) The Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh Industries Association (BBNIA) has expressed disappointment against the abrupt 12 per cent increase in the freight announced by the Nalagarh Truck Operators Union (NTOU) for distance up to 450 km, reported The Tribune.

Terming the decision arbitrary, association president Rajiv Aggarwal, said, “It has come to our notice that NTOU has increased the freight by 12 per cent for the distance up to 450 km.”

“No such discussion was held between the NTOU with the BBNIA. This arbitrary decision has caused a lot of resentment. We, as an association, strongly disapprove of this increase in the freight charges,” he said.

The association stated that the high court had decided in favour of industries to take trucks from any source or run own trucks. The order clearly states that NTOU has no authority to hike the rates unilaterally. This action of NTOU is in clear violation of the high court order of August.

YS Guleria, association’s general secretary, added that the BBNIA had been continuously persuading NTOU to bring the rates on par with the market rates.

“Now this further increase of 12 per cent is a blow to the industry which is already passing through troubled times,” he said.

The association appealed to NTOU to roll back this increase failing which the industry would be forced to start hiring vehicles from outside as has been mentioned by the high court order.

The NTOU, however, pleaded that the hike has been made owing to 48 per cent hike in the price of spare parts besides other expenditure like permit fee, insurance rates as well as the staff wages in the recent months, informed its president Harbhajan Singh.

More than 90 per cent of the state’s industry is housed in the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area and NTOU, which has a fleet of about 10,000 vehicles, is the biggest truck union of Asia. Both have been at loggerheads for years owing to the issue of freight.

(KNN Bureau)