MDA urges traders not to hike price
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 05 2025: Manipur Drivers' Association (MDA) has assured that transporters are continuing to bring in supplies without interruption despite the natural calamities currently affecting the state, and urged traders not to hike the prices of essential commodities.

Addressing a press conference at MDA office at Kwakeithel on Thursday, general secretary Sanjay Kshetrimayum said that although National Highway-2 was cut off by landslide at Phesema in Nagaland, immediate efforts were made to restore the flow of goods.

MDA, in collaboration with Senapati District Truck Drivers' Union, Senapati District Truck Owners' Association, and the Manipur Gorkha Motor Workers' Welfare Union, deployed heavy machinery and began repairing a bypass road on Wednesday.

The repair work was completed by Thursday and movement of goods trucks resumed the same day.

He appealed to the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) to repair the affected stretch of the highway at the earliest.

In the meantime, he urged all transporters to refrain from overloading their trucks while using the bypass road, warning that it cannot withstand excessive loads.

Maintaining that the state has already been reeling under the impact of the prolonged 25-month crisis and is now further burdened by widespread flooding, Sanjay said that it is highly irresponsible for traders to hike the prices of daily commodities in such situation.

He urged the state government and the departments concerned to take immediate steps to monitor and prevent such exploitative practices.

He added that the public should not have to raise complaints about price hikes every time the state is hit by a crisis, and also appealed to civil society organisations to actively conduct drives to check illegal pricing and safeguard the interests of the public.

On the other hand, he informed that the driver of a truck which fell into a gorge on National Highway-37 on Wednesday survived the accident without sustaining serious injuries.

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