Activists urge police to implement amended MV Act against overloaded trucks
TENKASI: Activists urged the district police on Thursday to strictly follow the provisions of the Motor Vehicles (MV) (Amendment) Act, 1988, against the overloaded trucks, particularly mineral-laden ones which are causing damage to the roads and water pipelines across this district.
Former MLA K Raviarunan told TNIE that even though this Act was published in the State government's gazette three years ago, the district police are apathetic to implementing certain provisions related to overloaded vehicles.
"The Act insists on a minimum fine amount of Rs 20,000 and additional `2000 per tonne for excess load for the overloaded trucks. But, the police are merely collecting Rs 2,000 as a penalty as per the old Act and letting the trucks go without unloading minerals.
More than 1,000 lorries are transporting minerals to Kerala from the district via Puliyarai every day. The overloaded vehicles are getting a pass for two units of mineral and illegally transporting over 10 units at a time whose market value is worth Rs 56,000. Because of this, the State government is facing a revenue loss of around Rs 10 crores every day," he explained.
Raviarunan further said the police are creating a huge loss to the State government's exchequer by not implementing the amended Act against such trucks. "The same police are implementing the amended Act against other road violators like drunken drivers who are fined `10,000. This is why the people think that the police are biased towards mineral transporters," he added. He also petitioned Chief Minister M K Stalin regarding the same.
Meanwhile, the staff of the Regional Transport Office in Tenkasi seized a few overloaded mineral-laden trucks and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on each of them as per the amended Act.
When contacted, the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) P Anand confirmed this.
Motor Vehicle Inspector Manibarathi in a statement said, "We seized five vehicles — two trucks, one autorickshaw, and two load-autorickshaws — and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.45 lakh for various violations." However, on Tuesday, the Alangulam police collected a fine amount of just Rs 34,000 collectively from 15 trucks and let them go without a seizure.
Speaking to TNIE, the Superintendent of Police (SP) R Krishnaraj said he has to receive a direction from the State government to collect the new fine amount from the overloaded vehicles. "We collect a fine amount of Rs 10,000 from the drunken drivers as per the amended Act issuing a 'police notice'," he added.
When asked why the police cannot issue such a notice against the overloaded trucks and collect the correct fine amount, the SP said he would check with other district police personnel regarding this.