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Patna, Aug 25 (IANS) Transporters began an indefinite strike in Bihar Wednesday against the government's decision to register criminal cases for overloading vehicles - an offence with a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

In the last one week, the state government registered nearly 100 cases against transporters. They were booked under provisions for preventing damage to public property.

"All the transporters went on indefinite strike and most of the commercial vehicles are off the roads in the state," an official of the Bihar Motor Transport Federation (BMTF) said.

The federation strongly opposed the government decision to slap cases on them, instead of imposing penalties for the offence.

The federation questioned why the government ordered registration of criminal cases when there was provision for slapping a maximum penalty of Rs.2,000 for such a violation under other provisions.

"We demand the withdrawal of the order invoking the damage to public property law against transporters," federation president Uday Shankar Prasad said.

Federation leaders said that over six lakh commercial vehicles, including trucks, buses, and tempos, were off the roads across the state Wednesday.

Officials in the transport department told IANS that after the drive was launched to check overloading of vehicles Aug 16, nearly 100 criminal cases were registered till Aug 24 (Tuesday).

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