Police bust truckers’ modus operandi of ferrying non-local people

Our Correspondent
SENAPATI, Apr 4: Not-withstanding the widespread concerns and fear of trans-porting non-locals into the State due to the outbreak of coronavirus/COVID-19, some truck drivers have been defying all precautionary measures to ferry outsiders into the State. However, alert Mao police flung into action and apprehended the wrongdoers.
 Acting on reliable inputs about entry of non-local people into the State illegally after issuance of ILP passes has been already suspended, and all surface entry points have been closed to passenger vehicles, Mao police led by OC Jonah Raphuba Chawang under the supervision of Senapati SP M Pradip Singh, busted  the modus operandi of transporting non-local people into the State through trucks.
The matter came to light when police were on usual duty to check all commercial vehicles coming into the State through Mao gate in the night of April 3.
Based on information that some non-locals came concealing themselves behind the driver’s seat of trucks after paying certain amount to the drivers, intensive checking was carried out.
All vehicles coming into the State through Mao Gate were stopped and checked during the no-entry timing from 9 pm to 4 am. "All parts of the vehicles were checked from cabin to roof and the body of the trucks", Inspector Jonah Raphuba Chawang.
With no passenger bus services available these days, some truck drivers have been transporting non-local people into the State after charging some money, thereby making a mockery of all Government orders and directives.
The standing order of the Govt at present permits only the driver and its handyman to ferry essential commodities.
While many illegal passengers travelling in the trucks were sent back, 12 of them were taken into Mao police station before they were sent to the quarantine centre of JNV, Mao. The 12 reportedly could not produce proper documents for entering the State for which a special permission (ILP) is also required.
Inspector Jonah also mentioned that seven trucks have been impounded for transporting non-local people into the State and the matter has been referred to the concerned civil authority.
The accused drivers were imposed fine and remanded for their illegal acts.
While checking of goods carriers has been intensified at the entry point, a medical team has been screening people coming into the State for COVID-19 since last month.
The OC further sought co-operation of all to check such illegal activities for safety of all in the State.
The non-locals who have been sent to the Mao quarantine centre came from Digboi, Assam, Guwahati, Chennai and Nagaland. They reportedly came in the following vehicles bearing registration No. NL08A-2351 (oil tanker), MN01-8031 (oil tanker), NL01G-8732 (oil tanker), MN01-9032 (oil tanker), AS01AY-5712 (Bolero) and AS01DD-3601 (loaded truck).