The Association of Democracy and Environment (ADE) has strongly condemned the accidental death of a five-year-old boy in the village of Purakhasia where a speeding dumper truck crushed him in its hurry.
In a statement today, the ADE demanded that the culprits involved in the incident be brought to book as demanded the monitoring of the transportation of boulder trucks in the region.
Purakhasia falls on the route of the export of boulders into neighbouring Bangladesh through the export hub of Dalu in West Garo Hills.
On Saturday, at about 3:30pm, Laksbirth S Sangma was killed after he was run over by a dumper truck while it was returning from Dalu after dumping its load. The truck fled from the spot following which it was found abandoned on the same road. The driver was later arrested.
“This is not a singular incident in this area. There have been regular reports of people being run over by boulder laden, over speeding trucks. Many people have lost their lives in these so-called accidents,” said Federick A Sangma, publicity and education secretary of ADE.
ADE alleged that some people in the name of export were playing with people’s lives.
“As per reports available, there is no proper system to scrutinize the transportation of stones in this area. There are neither forest department, MVI or police to check on the vehicles. Are the people’s lives so cheap that no one cares what happens to them,” he further asked.
ADE also raised the issue of whether the drivers that were driving these dumpers were even qualified to do so or even properly licensed for operation.
