MEGHALAYA:
The High Court of Meghalaya has expressed dismay at the state government’s failure to check overloading of trucks and has directed that all district superintendents of police be made aware of and appropriately instructed to check, even on physical appearance, any overladen truck.
Hearing a public interest litigation on Friday, the division bench of the court observed that 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 state said that a blueprint has been prepared and that acquiring a set of electronic weigh pads would set the state back by Rs 27 lakh.
The court stated that considering the cost per kilometre of road construction, the hilly terrain in the state, and the almost incessant rain that the state receives for nearly six months, there can be no excuse for not making appropriate investments to check the menace.
Hoping that some actual steps would be taken on the ground in such regard, the court said, “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 blind eye to the same.”
The court asked that a report be filed when the matter appears four weeks hence.
The court observed that, despite several reports filed by the state and the petitioner’s insisting that little has been done to check the overloading of vehicles along the principal arterial routes in the state, there is no apparent improvement in the situation.
It said that the immediate previous report indicated that there were some 16 or so weighbridges functional in the entirety of the state and that by the end of this month, the number of functional weighbridges would be increased to 23.
The state reported on Friday that 19 weighbridges are functional and another four are about to be made workable within the next fortnight or so.
The court stated that, at the same time, in several parts of the state, particularly around Pynursla, Shella, Dawki, and Nongstoi, vehicles carrying boulders and even sand filled to the brim and more heavy metal-bodied trucks operate brazenly with no checks in place.
The court pointed out that 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 overloaded 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 court said.
The matter is listed for May 3, 2023.