The Madras High Court today ordered notices to officials on a petition seeking a direction to ensure that the sand mined from Cauvery river bed was properly accounted for by enforcing the Motor Vehicle Act which said any article loaded should be weighed.
The petitioner M Rajendran wanted installation of automatic weighing machine at the exit point to weigh the quantity of sand loaded in a lorry and offload the excess. Then, a permit mentioning the amount of sand loaded should be given.
Similarly, at the boundary of each district, the officials should have weighing machine and check if the lorry carried the permitted level of sand.
The petitioner said everyday thousands of trucks were carrying excessive amount of sand from the river beds at Tiruchirappalli, Karur, Namakkal and Salem districts without weighing. As per the Act, a lorry should carry only the stipulated weight.
Justice M Jaichandran and Justice M Venugopal ordered notice to officials, including the Transport Commissioner and District Collectors of the four districts.
