Udupi; Oct 01: District lorry owner’s association has submitted a memorandum to state government requesting it to withdraw the decision of installing GPS in Lorries.
As our river base is very close to the sea, sand is available only during low tide time and during monsoon and high tide time sand is not available and hence we have to store in specified place and supply to the clients as and when demand comes. If the GPS is installed in the Lorries, it might pose a legal threat at the time of supplying sand to the customers.
Since the sand is available only during fixed time, separate vehicle cannot be provided. District cannot transport the sand as associations don’t have any interstate border facility. Since we are delivering only within the limit of 10 km, installing GPS is of no use. It is not proper to install GPS in 1500 Lorries in order to control 150 ports in Udupi region.
After loading the sand, route as mentioned in the trip sheet, cannot be diverted in case of emergency, if GPS is installed in the Lorries and hence it might create legal problem, they said.
There is a vast difference in the system, between other districts of the state and 3 districts in Karnataka coastal region .Since in udupi district sand mining is being done traditionally and manually, installation of GPS is not proper. It is also possible that if GPS is installed, separate lobby of sand mining Lorries might create and small transporter might render jobless and become unemployed.
Since district comprises lot of villages, most of the people, who are transporting sands in tempo, Lorries and other means of transportation might face problem and become jobless.
At the moment, all the taxes due to government is being remitted regularly by the association and if GPS is installed, Lorry owners association is unable to bear the extra burden of cost of the GPS installation and re-charge cost.
