CMO seeks explanation on overloading

JAIPUR: Reacting sharply to the alleged anomalies being practised by the state transport department in negligence of a Supreme Court order that bans overloading of commercial vehicles, the chief minister's office has asked for an explanation from the department.
According to sources in the government, the CMO has inquired on the prevalent system in imposing fines for overloading and measures adopted by the department to counter it and abide by the court ruling.
According to Braj Kishore Sharma, minister department of transport, "It is not that we are not adhering to the Supreme court order. Rather, we have rehashed the system and issued fresh orders recently so to as to better maintain the sanctity of the court order and impose higher fines for habitual offenders. We also ensure that the extra load is overloaded before the truck resumes its journey."
The department of transport has recently come fresh set of directives that rehashes the older system of imposing fines for overloading. In the old system the fines ranged upto Rs 2,000 for overloading upto three tonnes and thereafter the fine was Rs 1,000 for every tonne of overloading.
But in the new orders, the department now fines Rs 500 for overloading upto three tonnes, Rs 1,000 per tonne for overloads of upto 10 tonnes and thereafter it is Rs 1,500 per tonne.
"Every inspector is given a target to be achieved per month in challan receipts for overloading. In the earlier method, where the fees were higher the inspector could collect this sum by checking a smaller number of vehicles. Thereafter, he bargained with the truck driver and pocketed money that otherwise would have come to the state as revenue. It is to stop this practice that we altered the system," the minister said.
"Infact, the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have approached us for studying our new effective model so as to replicate in their states," the minister added.
Substantiating the effectiveness of the new system, transport commissioner Deepak Upriti revealed that under the new system the department has been able to collect a record Rs 7 crore in just 22 days of July. "Currently there are about 5,600 trucks across the state that has been seized. And our orders for them are simple, pay the fine, unload the excess weight and take away the trucks," Upriti said.
Out of the 5,600 seized trucks, 1739 are those that were carrying marbles and 1062 those that were ferrying cement.
Explaining the scaling down of the fine the commissioner said, "What used to happen is that the transport inspector in the old system would negotiate with the truck driver even if he has overloaded his vehicle by just a tonne and pocket a bribe of say Rs 1,000. For the truck driver this was beneficial as else he would have had to pay Rs 2,000. But now it is easier for the driver to pay a fine of just Rs 500 and get a receipt for it than cough up a bribe. But even in this case we ensure that the overloaded weight is taken off the truck before it resumes its journey," he added.
Upriti added the new system has lower fines only upto the three tonne mark. "But one you go to higher weights of 10 tonnes or more the fines imposed are more now than in the past. For example an over load of 25 tonne in the past would have meant a fine of Rs 24,00 in the past but now it amounts to a fine of Rs 30,000. And it is this category who are habitual offenders," he said.
The department has also imposed the system of cancelling the permits of habitual offenders who are caught overloading more than once. Even the number of flying squads in the state has been increased from its existing number of five to currently 10 for catching such offenders.