IT Correspondent
Jiribam, April 23:
Racks of urea fertilisers brought for Manipur State under the Agriculture Department were kept unloaded at the open platform of Jiribam Railway Station as truckers are on strike and refuse to load them.
The urea fertilisers were brought from Namrup Urea Factory by train at Jiribam which have to be transported further by road in trucks to Imphal.
The irony was that due to the protest of trucks’ drivers against the open firing by armed miscreants at the trucks, the truckers and transporters were scared to travel through NH-37. The racks of trains that arrived at Jiribam on 20 April and 23rd April 2021 were kept on waiting for trucks and finally unloaded at Jiribam railway station due to its time-bound.
It was learned from reliable sources that altogether 58310 bags of Urea fertilizers were brought by trains.
Talking with the media team, an official of A.C Enterprise transporter said there is a shortage of trucks due to bandh and protest by the truck drivers and Transporters. While questions were asked about the reasons for keeping openly unloaded Urea fertilizers bags at the platform. They said after the opening of train wagons, the materials have to unload within 5hours unless damage charge for every hour will be levied by the Railway department. In Jiribam there is no warehouse to store the fertilizers, so it’s kept at the platform and waiting for the trucks to be transported to Imphal.