Editor,
Apropos the news item “Diversion of trucks opposed” (ST 17/2/12), I wish to support the ERBCC for their rightful demand. It would be unfair for us Shillongites to enjoy the benefit of such a government decision at the cost of the safety of villagers. As per the complaint of the said NGO it appears totally an unjustified decision for the government to divert empty trucks through the by-pass when the road is hardly ready. Everyone knows the threats posed by empty trucks which I would not reluctantly brand as “highway killing machines”. I say this because everyone has witnessed the recklessness of these truck drivers. How many lives have been lost on the highways due to them? I for one was almost a victim of one such murderous truck. If we go by records, we will discover that empty trucks are involved in most of the truck-related accidents. All this is because of human greed. In a desire to make more trips and to earn more money, these trucks fly at high speed without concern for safety of other vehicles and people. Imagine such trucks plying at top speed through the narrow village roads; what a fatal act that could become? Village children and people in general who may not be as smart as city dwellers, could become easy prey to these insensitive truck drivers. Therefore, I feel that the government should look into this matter more carefully and analyze the pros and cons before jumping into a solution craze. The ERBCC are right in demanding that the roads be widened first before these trucks are allowed to ply through these villages. Unfortunately, our government has the bad habit of doing things in a hurry. Just look at the “traffic light project.” Is it not a monument of shame for the government? Or look at the Crowborough hotel, a perpetual symbol of inefficiency. I refrain from naming many other such monuments of shame public money has gone down the drain. Therefore the government should have seen to the improvement of those village roads before implementing the plan to divert the empty trucks through the by-pass.
Yours etc.,
Barnes Mawrie sdb
Via email
Callous drivers
Editor,
The ST front page news on diversion of empty trucks via the Nongpoh- Nartiang road is a relief to Shillongites. The effort put in by the government is laudable. A big ‘Thank you’ to the CM and the CS who have painstakingly supervised, monitored and updated the progress of the by-pass. A by-pass unattended and left forlorn so many long years by previous governments in power is now in a position to do some service to the people. We look forward to the speedy completion of the main by-pass. So long as it remains incomplete these multi axle trucks upon which the supreme court has not stipulated any permissible load, will continue to show their ugly sluggish movement n our highways. Patients undergoing treatment to better hospitals will still suffer and train and air passengers will have to leave their home sweet home at least one day before the journey. I am also in tune with the safety factors which is of concern to the people of Ri Bhoi villages all along the Mawlasnai- Nartiang road. In this regard the government would do well to post Police Beats at every 15 km or so and if Ri Bhoi District could resume mobile courts, it would prevent many accidents. Last year in the spring time mobile courts were conducted but was badly sabotaged by the truckers with no valid documents. They aligned their trucks in such a way that traffic on NH 40 and 44 came to a complete halt for one whole day. We should know that professional drivers, overworked by unscrupulous truck owners get their vehicles driven by helpers and handymen on the return trip when the trucks are empty. This is the reason for so many fatal accidents especially in the early morning hours. In case of accidents (God forbid) let us hear something pleasingly different from now, drivers involved should be severely punished and an accident tribunal set up that should see that accident claims are covered by the Insurance agency otherwise it becomes a laughing stock. We live in a world devoid of conscience. Whereas, in the past drivers drove with responsibility valuing the lives of people to the point of sacrificing their own lives today things are different. Now unfettered by the law enforcing agency it appears that human life weighs less than a feather.
Yours etc.,
Wandell Passah.
Retd. H.O.D.,
St. Edmund’s College