Assam truckers block checkgate in protest

Trucks being off-loaded at Chagolia inter-state checkgate in Dhubri

Dhubri, May 14: The Chagolia Truck Owners’ Association today blocked the Chagolia inter-state checkgate of Dhubri district for 12 hours today in protest against the offloading of goods from overloaded trucks.

Other truckers’ associations of the state supported them. Nearly 2,000 trucks were stranded on both sides of the checkgate, causing traffic congestion and deep resentment among the transporters who do not come under the purview of the Supreme Court’s directives.

The Supreme Court had issued a directive stating that plying of overloaded vehicles would not be allowed and excess load will be unloaded instantly if detected. The responsibility and cost of unloading of excess goods would lie with the owner of vehicle, it stated.

The president of the trucker’s association, Samad Ali, said they had no objection to implementing the directives of the Supreme Court. However, the infrastructure should first have been constructed.

“The truckers who are coming from other states do not know the imposition of this prohibition by the Supreme Court and were caught unawares,” Ali said.

The president of the Dhubri-Golokganj Truck Owners’ Association, Badsah Khan, alleged that the district transport office should have informed them before implementing the directives.

“But they started offloading the overloaded trucks without giving us any information,” Khan alleged. He said the department was only offloading goods of private parties while they were allowing the trucks carrying government supply goods.

In other states of the country, the authorities only impose a fine and let the trucks go, Khan said.

Dhubri district transport officer Goutam Das said complying with the directives of the Supreme Court against the truckers carrying extra loads, they had started offloading the goods from the trucks since May 8.

“Prior to the implementation of the directives, we distributed leaflets and served notices for a week from May 1 to 7 and then started the offloading ,” Das said.

He said six-wheel trucks carrying more than 10 tonnes and 10-wheel trucks carrying more than 25 tonnes have been categorised for offloading and were also being penalised.