Fuel supply to northern states, including Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, is likely to be affected as tanker owners have gone on an indefinite strike from today.
     The strike is against Indian Oil Corporation's alleged decision to recover the cost of damages to the Vehicle tracking system installed in the tankers from the owners.
     VTS systems tracks the movement of vehicles and allows IOC to see the exact location of the cargo.
     Announcing the decision, president of the Indian Oil Tankers Union Krishan Lal Sharma alleged that recently the company had installed VTS equipment on all tankers but many of them developed faults for which Rs6,000 was deducted from each of the tanker owners in an arbitrary manner.
     "When the VTS were installed, it was never mentioned that the tanker owners will be responsible for any fault in the equipment and now suddenly the company has deducted the money", Sharma said.