Road fatalities increasing due to Surjagarh mining: Plea in HC

Nagpur: A Gadchiroli resident has approached the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court contending that fatal accidents are taking place on Allapalli-Ashti national highway due to iron ore mining activities in Surjagarh.
A division bench comprising Justices Atul Chandurkar and Mahendra Chandwani on Wednesday issued notices to the respondents, including the Union ministry of road transportation and highways and state motor vehicles department.

The public works department’s national highway division, Gadchiroli collector, zilla parishad chief executive officer, gram panchayat secretary of Shatigram and Chuttugunta villages, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), Lloyds Metals & Engineers Ltd, and Thriveni Earth Movers are the other respondents, who were told to reply before the end of vacations next month.
Pointing out that mining extracts are being carried in heavy vehicles, petitioner Nitish Poddar, through counsel Renuka Sirpurkar, said it has led to severe damage to the national and state highways in the area.
Listing out hazards of these heavy vehicles plying from remote villages of the backward district, he said many schools, colleges, primary health centres and hospitals are located on the route, which could be life threatening for the residents, patients and students.
“This is affecting our daily life and travelling on those damaged roads from Surjagarh to Ashti, right up to Sironcha, has become dangerous. None of the authorities, however, are ready to take responsibility of maintaining or repairing the roads. It has also affected MSRTC bus service and private transport vehicles. Last year alone, 47 police complaints were lodged about accidents on the dreaded stretch, of which most were fatal,” Poddar said.
The petitioner said on an average nearly 5,200 trucks pass on the stretch daily and villagers suffer from harmful dust kicked up by them.