Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has asked the district administrations to act against truckers violating the rules and carrying excess load while plying on highways, official sources today said. In a significant judgement on November 9, 2005, the Supreme Court had banned overloading of trucks in excess of prescribed weight limit.
The court had mandated that trucks found on roads carrying illegal excess load will have to offload the cargo crossing the legal weight limit. The apex court has further upheld that an overloaded truck cannot proceed on its journey unless the enforcement authority has ensured that the vehicle weight has been brought to the prescribed load limit.
Also it mandated that the excess cargo would be offloaded at the risk and cost of the vehicle owner before it is permitted to carry on with the journey even after payment of penalty.
Over the last two weeks, the government has raised over Rs 13 lakh revenue penalizing trucks who carried excess load on NH 62. The excess load is being offloaded at the point of detection. The sources said that for regulation of the body structure of the trucks, some time frame for the truckers and associations to comply with the norms is being contemplated.
No truck will be allowed to renovate its body structure and carry excess load. The SC order will be strictly followed. This may bring down the permitted load capacity per truck below the now-practiced 15 tonnes, the sources said. Meanwhile, the government has also ordered closing down of all weighbridges, but two one at the entry point and another at the exit on NH 62, as per a Gauhati High Court order. There will be only two weighbridges one at Dobu (entry) and another at Depasarangma (exit). All other weighbridges will be closed down, officials said.