Bhubaneswar: After opening a helpline for complaints against public carriages overloading passengers, the state government will now tighten its noose around goods vehicles, especially trucks carrying freight much beyond their capacity as well as companies which encourage such acts.
The move follows a series of big road accidents in the recent past in which almost 60 people have died.
According to a study, the state witnesses close to 12 deaths in road accidents every day. Overloaded goods vehicles are believed to be a major reason behind road mishaps.
According to the state transport commissioner and state transport authority (STA), their flying squads have found carriages carrying overload to the extent of 10-25tonnes than the permissible gross vehicle weight.
The transport department claims most of the overloaded vehicles move through Angul, Dhenkanal, Talcher, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Sundergarh, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Keonjhar, Chandikhole and Jajpur.
To tackle the menace, enforcement officers will be deployed near source points or loading points like rice mills, industries, factories and mines to conduct surprise raids and prevent movement of overloaded goods carriages.
The first phase enforcement will be from November 1 to November 30 and all RTOs will submit report at the end of the drive. Action will be taken against goods carriages owners and drivers as per the Motor Vehicles Act.
Industries promoting overloading will also be taken to task, transport department officials said. “In some cases industries and rice millers are imposing conditions upon goods carriages owners that they will allow overloading to the willing truckers,” a transport department letter says.
The state transport commissioner said in such cases, the onus will also be on the company or its concerned employees.
Accordingly, the RTOs have been asked to lodge FIRs immediately against the director, manager, secretary or other officers of the concerned company for commission of offence.
Action will be taken against the guilty as per the ‘offence by the companies’ provisions under the MV Act, officials said.
Meanwhile, a meeting on road safety chaired by state transport minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi will be held today at the state secretariat.
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