The Meghalaya High Court today said that in several parts of the State, particularly around Pynursla, Shella, Dawki and Nongstoiñ, vehicles carrying boulders and even sand filled to the brim and more of heavy metal bodied trucks operate brazenly with no checks in place.
“Even without weighbridges, it is obvious that such vehicles, sometimes bearing no registration plates, do not conform to the weight limits but the local administration, for obvious reasons, turns a Nelson’s eye to the same,” the division bench of the High Court said while hearing a PIL by Tennydard M. Marak on overloading by transport vehicles.
“There are pockets, particularly around Pynursla, where a thousand trucks may be seen to be parked at a time, all meant to carry boulders and even sand to Bangladesh and probably not one of them adhering to the weight norms. Elsewhere overloaded vehicles carry timber. While there may have been some improvement in some of the goods vehicles being covered, one suspects that the cover may more often be to hide the transportation of coal than to ensure safety. Indeed, the overladen vehicles carrying boulders look so dangerous that if they were to suddenly brake, the boulders on top would invariably shower behind and smash any lesser vehicle or kill pedestrians,” the High Court added.
During the hearing, the State informed the court that 19 weighbridges are functional and another four are about to be made workable within the next fortnight or so.
The High Court has asked Superintendents of Police in all districts to check, even on physical appearance, the overloaded trucks. “Once such a drive is undertaken and some trucks are stopped and not permitted to carry on without relieving the additional load, others may fall in line,” the court said.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the way the State government is handling overloading by vehicles, the High Court hoped that some actual steps would be taken on the ground in such regard. It also said that a report on the same should be filed at the next hearing on May 3.
