Demand grows for strict screening of lorries at checkposts

‘Government must ready infrastructure and post more personnel along State borders’

With a number of goods carriers from other States openly flouting Motor Vehicles Rules and crossing over to Kerala bearing hidden number plates, missing tail lamps and illegal alterations such as extending length and width to hold more cargo, the demand is rife that the government ready infrastructure and post more personnel to screen them at checkposts on the State’s borders. “Even as Motor Vehicles Department officials face flak for inadequate screening of national permit and other lorries at checkposts, few know that it is extremely tough to keep tabs on a few thousand lorries that cross into the State every day. The alleged anomalies detected in recent raids conducted at a few checkposts are an eye-opener,” said official sources. The sources said the government and the Transport Department must ready infrastructure such as CCTVs at least a km away from each checkpost so that the real-time feed of vehicles could be monitored from the checkpost or even from the office of the Transport Commissioner in Thiruvananthapuram. It would also deter unscrupulous officials from accepting bribes and duty omissions, they added.