Drivers’ Haridwar to Sansad Kanwar Yatra halted at Sonipat. Ganga water offering to Parliament unlikely

Drivers wanted to offer Ganga jal at Sansad to draw govt attention to their problems. ‘Whenever there is accident, our drivers become victims of lynching. People don't even see who is at fault.’

Drivers wanted to offer Ganga jal at Parliament because Sansad Bhawan is 'the biggest temple of democracy'. | By special arrangement

Gurugram: A group of truck and commercial vehicle drivers who set out on foot from Haridwar on 1 August with Ganga water to offer at the Parliament House—“the biggest temple of democracy”—in Delhi on 11 August was stopped by police in Haryana’s Sonipat. They said they had to spend hours without food as the vehicle carrying their supplies was detained and their access to it restricted. 

The yatra, organised under the banner of driver “maan-samman, adhikar aur suraksha” (dignity, rights and security), was stopped by the police at Ganaur—roughly 40 km from the Singhu-Delhi border—in Sonipat on Saturday itself. 

Its organisers had nonetheless called on drivers from across the country to assemble at the Singhu border on Sunday, 9 August. That call, however, alerted the police. The yatra was not allowed to move towards Singhu.

Surendra Jat, the convener of the yatra, alleged that police seized their vehicle carrying food supplies, leaving the drivers without anything to eat for hours.

Jat told The Print that the drivers wanted to offer Ganga jal at Parliament because the Sansad Bhawan is “the biggest temple of democracy”. The gesture, he said, was meant to draw the government’s attention to the problems drivers face across the country.

“Whenever there is an accident, our drivers become victims of public lynching. People don’t even see who is at fault. We, being drivers of the bigger vehicle, are considered the culprits. In many cases, drivers are killed in accidents or become handicapped,” Jat said. 

“We want compensation of Rs 1 crore to the families of drivers killed in mishaps or lynching, and Rs 50 lakh in case of serious injuries. We also want those who lynch drivers to be dealt with sternly under the law for murder.”

Jat added that drivers also wanted the sterner provisions on hit-and-run cases scrapped altogether.

The organisers describe the movement as one built around a long charter of demands touching on drivers’ dignity, safety, wages, welfare and a dedicated mechanism to address their grievances, besides a voting mechanism for drivers who remain away from their home constituencies for work. 

Bir Singh, the Station House Officer of Ganaur police station, said the drivers had been counselled to end their yatra at Ganaur itself and offer the Ganga water at a local temple.

“They wanted to proceed towards Delhi. However, in view of the security measures ahead of Independence Day, movement towards Delhi is being regulated. We had a discussion with the yatris, and on our persuasion, they have agreed to end their yatra at Ganaur and offer Ganga water at a local temple,” Singh told ThePrint.

The hit-and-run law that isn’t in force

Central to the drivers’ anger, among other issues, is Section 106(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which prescribes up to 10 years in jail for a driver who causes death by rash or negligent driving and flees the scene without reporting it. 

The provision, framed as a replacement for the more lenient Section 304A of the old Indian Penal Code, triggered nationwide protests by truckers in January 2024 and has since been kept in abeyance by the Centre. As of now, it has still not been notified.

A related provision, Section 106(1). causing death by rash or negligent conduct not amounting to culpable homicide, is in force and carries up to five years’ imprisonment. 

Separately, Section 134 of the Motor Vehicles Act continues to require a driver involved in an accident to help secure medical aid for the injured and report the accident to the police, regardless of the fate of Section 106(2).

Transport organisations have argued that Section 106(2), if notified in its current form, does not adequately distinguish between a driver fleeing to evade the law and one fleeing out of fear of mob violence at the accident site, a distinction that remains at the heart of drivers’ demands for its withdrawal.

With the yatra now halted short of Delhi, its stated deadline of reaching Parliament with Ganga water by Tuesday, 11 August, looks unlikely to be met.

(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)