Once again, local transporters have raised the demand of installing proper highway protection force. State Government should take action to remove the burden of illegal taxes. This is going to directly impact the price of essential commodities too.

As per sources, Naga nationalist insurgents have been charging several illegal taxes. Imphal-Jiribam highway loaded trucks are charged Rs. 5,000 each at Kaimai village by the cadres of these groups. Yes, State Government has renovated national highway number 37. But, it is not beneficial to transporters until the government is not working to improve the highway security forces too.

Truck drivers who are travelling along the Imphal-Dimapur highway (NH-2), the problems are even more severe. Here, police too extort besides the NSCN groups. For each goods truck, they are paying around Rs. 60,000 per trip.

With these illegal taxes, transporters of the Manipur now feel hesitated to continue the business. Thus, there is a huge reduction in the number of transporters in Manipur.