Nagpur | July 06, 2017: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, on Wednesday, asked Maharashtra government to explain why Global Positioning System (GPS) can't be installed in trucks transporting sand, gravel and minerals from mining sites.

A division bench comprising justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Rohit Deo granted three weeks to the additional government pleader Ketki Joshi to file reply.

The court's poser came while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by Paramjit Kalsi through counsel Anil Kilor, alleging several malpractices while issuing transit or royalty passes to the contractors for carrying out sand, gravel and mineral mining.

The collector's office charges Rs12,000 for issuing one transit or royalty pass which fixes the number of visits by the trucks. After using up all their valid visits as per the pass, the contractors allegedly make fake transit passes in connivance with the collectorate officials, thus causing huge losses to the tune of crores to the exchequer.

Kilor contended that an FIR was also lodged in this regard at Kanhan police station, but no action was taken. He said steps taken by the collector's office were inadequate to control the smuggling of precious natural resources. By using technology like electronic bar coding and GPS, such practices could be controlled. He also informed that if these systems are installed, it would help in locating the movement of trucks and also while they are loaded and unloaded.

Earlier, AGP Joshi sought time to file reply on court's query stating that it was a policy decision.

The petitioner demanded that the district collector should take cognisance of this issue and enforce rules which make it mandatory to implement codded transit passes and GPS on trucks transporting sand and minerals.

The petitioner had earlier approached the court last year seeking a directive to the state government to act against overloaded truckers and consignors under the provisions of Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, 1984. Currently, the enforcement agency is taking action against overloaded vehicles under Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)