North reels under fruit, vegetables shortage

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Chandigarh: The strike of the truck operators entered the third day in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on Thursday with the three states facing shortage of vegetables and fruits and of petroleum products whose supply chain was also disrupted due to strike by the employees of the oil companies.

Reports here said that the prices of vegetables and fruits have increased by around 20% since Wednesday as the movement of the two commodities remained suspended. The items, which have become costly include onions, tomato, carrot, lemon, apple, banana and orange.

Shortage of cereals and pulses was not being felt as the traders had stocks of these items, which could last for few more days. Besides most residents were stated to have made purchases of their monthly ration in the first week of the month, officialssaid adding that there was shortage of vegetables and fruits. Majority of the petrol filling stations had gone dry in the region with “no petrol, no diesel” sign boards being put up at the outlets.

There were very long queues of motorists at the few petrol pumps which had some stock with them. The porters working in the transport area in Chandigarh and at other places in the region were amongst the worst hit as they were without work since the past three days. The transport companies had stopped the booking of goods from Monday when the truck operators went on strike and even the daily necessities could not be transported as around 10 lakh trucks in the region have gone off the road.

The number of trucks on various national and state highways in the region, including Delhi Ambala Amritsar, Chandigarh Jalandhar and Ludhiana Pathankot was stated to be negligible and a large number of trucks were parked along the roadside at various places.