SHILLONG, JUNE 27: The Meghalaya Commercial Truck Owners and Operators Association (MCTOOA) have sought action against a government weighbridge in East Jaintia Hills District for allegedly indulging in extortion from trucks.
In a complaint lodged with the Commissioner of Transport here, MCTOOA president Augustine Shanpru said, “Kindly sort this problem and pass necessary instruction (by way of public notice) to Umtyra weighbridge not to extort exorbitant weighment fee from our members who have already weighed at the 7th Mile weighbridge or other Transport Department weighbridges.”
“Also necessary public notice should be issued that a truck which has already paid weighment fee in one of the government weighbridges need not pay weighment fee again whenever they are asked to weigh in any other weighbridges on the same day and for the same consignment it is transporting,” he added.
According to him, the biggest problem which truck members are facing is the dual weighment of same goods in a very short distance in between Umtyra weighbridge and 7th Mile weighbridge.
He alleged that the owner of Umtyra weighbridge is charging Rs 500 to Rs 1500 from every truck which was forced to pass through the weighbridge despite of being authorized to collect only Rs 200 from each truck as weighment fee.
The Umtyra weighbridge is also charged of failing to issue any reciept or slip for the illegal money collected from the trucks besides the Rs 200 which is mentioned in the weighment Slip.
Shanpru further stated that the trucks which have already been weighed at Umtyra weighbridge, upon reaching the 7th Mile weighbridge, are weighed again.
However, he said those vehicles which have the weighment slip to show that they have already weighed at Umtyra weighbridge, no weighment fee is collected from them at 7th Mile weighbridge and the verification is done in the presence of the uniformed officials.
On the contrary, he also said that irrespective of the truck weighed or not weighed at 7th Mile weighbridge, the owner of the Umtyra weighbridge are uniformly extorting the above illegal amount from our trucks whenever they were made to pass through the Umtyra Weighbridge.
Meanwhile, the MCTOOA president said that as per the information obtained from the state government through the Right to Information, it has clearly spelled out the purpose and function of the umtyra weighbridge.
“However, we are stunned to see that the information provided in the RTI and what is happening in the field is just the opposite,” he added.
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