The All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has warned against COVID-19 community transmission in the road transport sector, due to a large number of cases being reported by truckers and their families of getting infected all across different states.
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As per Kultaran Singh Atwal, President, AIMTC, truckers across states such as Delhi, Harayan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh have reported cases of being COVID-19 positive, along with their families. This has led to an alarming rise in the number of cases in the trucking community, after repeated pleas to the government to carry out safety procedures and provide measures for truck drivers and helpers. Atwal added that more than 20 crore people that are associated with the transportation sector stand to get infected with coronavirus.
“Our worst fears are coming true. There has been increasing number of cases of COVID-19 among the transport community as the information trickles in from across the country. Their entire families are infected and quarantined,” he said.
AIMTC Secretary General Naveen Kumar Gupta said under such circumstances where the transporters do not have adequate finance for sustenance of their families or to pay for their statutory compliances they are being forced to remain off roads.
As per Gupta, “Coronavirus could explode among this vulnerable population sooner than it is expected as the community transmission has taken its foothold in the road transport sector.”