NONGSTOIN/SHILLONG: Angry truck drivers on Friday blocked NH-44E for five hours in protest against the district administration’s prohibitory order.
West Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Arun Kumar Kembhavi has imposed Section 144 barring trucks from plying from Nongstoin to Barapani Industrial Estate via Mairang.
The order, which was issued on May 2, stated that the Government is losing on revenue because trucks were avoiding the Nongstoin-Athiabari-Riangdo route where there are weighbridges.
Truckers and local miners said when coal has to be unloaded in Jaintia Hills, there is no logic in diverting the route through Athiabari and Guwahati.
Sources said truck drivers stopped their vehicles on NH-44E around 1pm on Friday after police at Nongspung asked them to take the Riangdo-Athiabari road.
No vehicles, except ambulances and those carrying ailing people, from either side of the highway were allowed to pass leading to a five-hour chaos. Tyres and boulders were used to block the road.
The truck drivers, who demanded an official directive withdrawing the prohibition, refused to listen to suggestions of the SDO of Mairang civil subdivision. The vehicle of the District and Sessions judge of East Garo Hills was also not allowed to pass.
The situation came under control after Additional District Magistrate P.D Sangma and Nongstoin MDC L.G Nongsiej assured the agitators that the prohibitory order would be scrapped. Kembhavi was not in Nongstoin on Friday.
The blockade was removed at 6pm.
Petition against order
The West Khasi Students’s Union has petitioned Chief Secretary K.S Kropha demanding that Section 144 be withdrawn.
In a memorandum submitted to Kropha on Friday, General Secretary of the union D. Sun said the order has created in convenience for coal traders in Maweit and Nongstoin.
Sun said the two weighbridges at Mawpun and Domprut are not functioning properly.
