Court summons Secy, Transport, Commissioner

Dehradun, July 4 

Taking suo moto notice of the Pauri bus accident in which 48 persons were killed, the Uttarakhand High Court on Wednesday issued summons to the Secretary, Transport, and the Transport Commissioner  to appear before it during the next hearing. 

They have been directed to explain why its directives regarding overloading issued last year were not implemented in letter and in spirit.

The single Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma took a serious note of overloading as on the fateful day, the  Uttarakhand State Road Transport Corporation bus was carrying 61 passengers against the capacity of 28. 

The court   noted that “officials of the Transport Department did not comply with the directives issued by it on September 2017 regarding the plying of all vehicles according to the Motor Vehicles Act, and carrying out mandatory checks to prevent overloading in public transport and school buses”.  

The court further observed that had these directions been followed, the loss of precious lives could have been avoided.

The court directed chief medical officers (CMOs) of all districts to depute special staff during night hours to conduct breath analyser tests on drivers to prevent drunken driving. 

It directed the department to  check the eyesight of all private and government drivers within 15 days of the judgment order. 

Members of the Uttarakhand Bar Association have been entrusted with the task of reporting overloading in vehicles to the authorities concerned. — TNS