Unscrupulous truckers drive away with profits

VADODARA, June 20: Even as recession nibbles at the economic vitals of the State, the disappearance of whole truckloads of goods is causi...

VADODARA, June 20: Even as recession nibbles at the economic vitals of the State, the disappearance of whole truckloads of goods is causing worrylines to be etched deeper on the face of the State8217;s industrial giants and bona fide transporters alike.

Consider this. In a span of six months, goods worth Rs 2 crores, loaded on trucks booked by Vadodara transporters, have vanished en route to their destinations. The stolen goods ranged from plastic granules to copper wires, medicines to milk powder, all of which have high sale values.

Officials in the Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd told Express Newsline that the company had thus lost 10 truckloads of polymer and other goods in the past six months. This was the number of trucks they lost through the whole of 1998. And if last year, it staked an insurance claim for Rs 1.25 crores, this year8217;s figure hovers around Rs 1.5 crores, according to an official of New India Assurance.

For the figures involved, the modus operandi is pretty simple. Local transporters, always short of trucks and always under pressure from clients, are often compelled to engage truckers 8212; often from States other than Gujarat, though of late a couple of local transporters, too, have joined the racket 8212; for delivery of goods. Sometimes, they drive away with the goods, never to be seen again.

That is what happened to Surat Goods Transport manager Vijay Kumar. He loaded IPCL plastic granules worth Rs 16 lakhs on a Haryana-registered truck on April 22. But it never reached its destination in Delhi.

Such instances are innumerable. The Delhi-Assam Transporters despatched IPCL polymer goods to Delhi and Mumbai on February 2 and April 27 respectively. Neither has reached the designated stations. Birla Copper wires worth Rs 22 lakhs, seen off on April 4 from Dahej by Transport Corporation of India and bound for Mysore and Tumkur, met with a similar fate.

8220;Transporters take every precaution against robberies, including photocopies of the vehicle8217;s insurance papers and registration, and the chassis and engine number8221;, said Baroda Road Transport Association president Surendra Yadav. 8220;But the thefts continue.8221;

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While companies were insured for good lost or stolen in transit, transporters had to pay a heavy price, Yadav said, adding that they were not only denied their payments but also slapped with a court case by insurance companies seeking to recover 50 per cent of the damages.

8220;It8217;s the Regional Transport Office8217;s responsibility to ensure vehicles with fake papers did not operate in the State8221;, said Yadav. Vadodara RTO M K Hemavat, however, said, 8220;My department doesn8217;t have the manpower to check if the papers of very vehicle are genuine or not. Besides, we don8217;t have the sample stamps of other RTOs to compare with the papers truckers produce.8221;

And what do the law-enforces have to say about this? 8220;None of the five thefts of IPCL consignments this year has been solved8221;, admitted an official of Jawaharnagar police station, where all such cases have been registered. Added another, rather meekly, 8220;Since most trucks are stolen outside Gujarat, there8217;s very little we can do.8221;

Yadav and BRTA secretary P M Vaghela suggested that the investigation of such cases be turned over to the Criminal Investigation Department or a similar state agency, rather than the local police station. 8220;We8217;ve recently written to the Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya, requesting him to either create a separate cell for such cases or hand them over to the CID Crime8221;, they said. Police Commissioner J Mahapatra, too, agreed that the CID was the best agency for such inter-state issues.