Adani cement group CEO and truckers talk remain inconclusive

Adani Cement company proved to be a hard bargainer. Dozen of rounds of talk between the Adani management and the transporter unions ended inconclusive here on Tuesday. Ram Kishan Sharma, a member of the core committee of Darla truck operators told us that the government has extended full cooperation to them for the last 62 days. He said that the government has stood by them and it was expected that a solution would be found through talks but it remained inconclusive. 

Chief minster Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu had called the operators and CEO of Adani Cement Group for talks at 11 am today.  Different rounds of talks were held with the operators.  The CEO was made to sit in the Chief Minister’s Office and Industries Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan kept talking to the operators but no solution was arrived at. According to Ram Krishan Sharma, today  Adani Cement CEO  refused to accept the freight operators’ demand and agreed to pay their new freight rates of Rs.8.50 for multi-axle trucks and Rs.10 for other trucks. Earlier  Adani group had agreed to pay Rs.9 freight for multi axle trucks and Rs.10 for trucks. The operators said that the freight rate in Barmana was 11.41 paise per ton per kilometer, but they were ready to come down from this freight rate and take 10 rupees 70 paise to end this dispute, but now the operators are going ahead with the increase in the freight rate from 2019 onwards. 

Truck operators said that they walked out of meeting today as it is useless to extend talks as the management of Adani is proving to be a hard bargainer. Ram Krishan Sharma said that operators are going to intensify their  agitation.  He said the strategy of the agitation will be to unite all the stakeholders and stop Adani trucks which are roaming in the state with loads exceeding the limit.  It is worthwhile to mention here that Adani Group and truck operators over Himachal are engaged in one of nation’s biggest industrial dispute. It has been 62 days today as Adani has put lock on the Ambuja cement plants in Darlaghat and ACC plants in Bharmana in Bilaspur and cement factories have suspended their operations sine die. It was on Monday that the Chief Minister himself participated in a high level meeting attended by the Adani Company management but despite expressing hope to end the impasse talks ended without moving an inch .