SHILLONG, OCT 28: Truck owners in Jaintia hills on Tuesday alleged that the weighbridges in the region encourages “overloading” to make it easy for them to overcharge the trucks and the extra money never gets deposited into the state’s exchequer even as the truckers demanded closure of a weighbridge and check gate owned by the transport and mining department in Jaintia hills.
“We demand the closure of the weighbridge of the transport department and lease out to private individuals at 7th Mile and a check gate of the Directorate of Mining Resources (DMR) at Mookyndur in West Jaintia Hills District,” Jaintia Hills Truck Owner’s Association (JHTOA) general secretary Enrico Pasi told reporters on Tuesday.
According to Pasi, at present there are two weighbridges at 7th Mile and Ratacherra and two check gates- Mookyndur and Byrnihat (Ri Bhoi District) which the trucks have to go through to weigh the trucks and checking of the challans.
Pasi said it does not make sense to weigh the same product twice.
“The presence of too many gates and weighbridges has created a lot of problems for the truck in term of money and time. We want the government to implement transport norms of having one entry and one exit gates,” Pasi said adding that per truck at least Rs 4000-Rs 5000 is to be paid at these gates and weighbridges.
Stating that such weighbridges also encourage overloading, Pasi said, “The weighbridge at 7th Mile use to charge Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 for overloading (above 9 tons)which is much more than the prescribed rate fixed by the government which is Rs 100 and Rs 50 for 9 tons.”
The association further alleged huge leakage of revenue and loss to the government due to this illegal collection by these weighbridges and check gates.
“According to the RTI filed by the association, it revealed that the weighbridge at 7th Mile despite charging exorbitant rate for overloading is depositing only Rs 20, 000 per day to the state government while it is generating revenue of not less than Rs 4-5 lakh,” JHTOA president Balen Thubru said adding “The government had fixed Rs 75 lakh a year for the weighbridge to deposit.”
According to Thubru, before the NGT ban was imposed in Meghalaya the weighbridge use to collect revenue of over Rs 30 lakhs per day. He also alleged that most of the time the trucks never get the receipts after paying the amount to the weighbridge.
“This clearly shows that this only brings a lot of revenue loss to the state government,” Thubru said while suggesting the need to allow department concerned to run these weighbridges to avoid revenue loss to the government.
Thubru further alleged there is nexus between politician and these weighbridges. “If there is no nexus, how can these weighbridges be allowed to continue to operate in these way without benefiting the state government.”
Thubru also alleged that the lease of the weighbridge at 7th Mile has been given to the same person for quite a long time now adding as per rule, the lease should be renew once in three years which the government has failed to do so.- By Our Reporter
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