Published On : Mon, Dec 24th, 2012

Trucks ply overloaded as RTO officials rake in monthly ‘cuts’ across Nagpur

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Nagpur News.

Overloaded trucks are being freely allowed in and out of the Nagpur district borders, thanks to the monthly ‘cut’ the RTO officials receive against granting the illegal permission. In a stark revelation, it is learnt that RTO inspectors posted at rural and urban borders in the district extorts huge sum from the truck operators at the check posts while those who fixes monthly passing have to shell out Rs 9000- Rs 12000 per month.

Those plying overloaded trucks are often imposed with the fine that often goes 10 times of the prescribed ones.

Sources informed that the illegal practice has been followed for the last many years causing heavy revenue loss to the state’s exchequer. Insiders even alleged that a huge chunk of commission earned from the ‘illegal recovery’ is also sent to the state transport minister. The RTO chief offers to post the subordinates at the ‘happening spots’ on weekly basis. These men then unscrupulously accumulates huge sum of money from the operators violating the load limits. Some have even fixed the monthly bribe to these RTO inspectors to let them go.

Most of these practices are said to be followed in the darkness of night when the highways remain crowded with fleet of trucks. The truckers operate on their whims and fancies keeping the rules and security concerns at bay, as they pay heavy sums on monthly basis. As per the rules, trucks with six tyres should not exceed the maximum load of 9 tons while those with ten tyres must not cross beyond 10 tons of load.

However, this practice is costing dear to many of the truckers who are now repenting as they get the RTO officials into habit of taking bribe and invited trouble for themselves.

Distressed over the RTO’s attitude towards the truckers, the president of Nagpur Truckers’ Association Kukku Marwaha has appealed to the all the truck operators to shift towards local transporting that would free them from the corrupt RTO inspectors.

Marwaha demanded that if any truck is caught overloaded, the concerned owner of the goods being carried should also be taken into account as they would also refrain from forcing the truck owners to carry their goods beyond capacity of the vehicles.