Despite frequent accidents, tractor trolleys in U.P. continue to flout rules by ferrying people

Section 172 of the Uttar Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1998, clearly says, “No trailer manufactured in India and intended to be used as a transport vehicles shall be registered unless its design has been approved by the Transport Commissioner.”

The tragic Hathras road accident on Friday night is a grim reminder of how tractor trolleys continue to openly flout rules by transporting people with police and other enforcement agencies being content to look the other way, people in the know of things said.

Mishaps involving tractor trolleys keep on happening on U.P. roads despite the government’s directions for stopping such vehicles to transport people other than labourers. (For Representation)

At least six people were killed and many injured when a tractor trolley carrying 24 people on a religious trip collided with a dumber on a road on Jalesar Road in Hathras district on Friday night.

Mishaps involving tractor trolleys keep on happening on U.P. roads despite the government’s directions for stopping such vehicles to transport people other than labourers who might be going to a project site in a city or for agriculture work in a village.

Sample these: At least 26 people were killed and several injured after a tractor-trolley they were travelling in overturned and fell into a pond in Kanpur district in October 2022.

Earlier, in September 2022, nine people died and several others were injured after a tractor-trolley overturned in a pond in Lucknow’s Itaunja. A total of 46 people were on the trolley. In April this year, a tractor-trolley carrying 42 people fell into the Garra river in Shahjahanpur district, killing 14 of them.

In July, 18 people were injured when an uncontrolled tractor-trolley fell into a ditch on the Bareilly Road in Bisalpur area. In June, three people were killed and a dozen others injured when a tractor-trolley with villagers returning from a pre-wedding function fell into a canal on the Sainya-Iradat Road in Agra.

These are only some of the few accidents reported in less than a year in the state. “After back-to-back Kanpur and Itaunja accidents in September-October last year, authorities did wake up and launched a state-wide drive to stop tractor-trolleys from carrying passengers but the entire drive and action was largely on paper,” said a retired transport official requesting anonymity.

“The state government has not even taken a call on the transport department’s proposal for fixing the design of commercial tractor-trolleys. The proposal was sent after the Kanpur and Itaunja accidents,” he claimed.

Principal secretary, transport, L Venkateshwar Lu said the design of commercial tractor-trolleys was already fixed by the central government.

“But this is unfortunate that trolleys registered for agricultural and commercial purpose ferry people despite the law not allowing the same. We will revisit the issue after the Hathras accident,” he said.

After Kanpur and Itaunja accidents, the transport department set up a five-member committee to study the provisions related to manufacturing and registration of tractor trolleys under the Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, as well as the guidelines issued in this regard in other states.

The order issued in this regard by additional transport commissioner (enforcement)VK Sonakiya said that the MV Act did not have clear provisions for the registration of the trolleys used for agriculture purposes. “The matter ended with the constitution of the committee and nothing happened thereafter,” the official said.

The section 172 of the Uttar Pradesh Motor Vehicles Rules, 1998, clearly says, “No trailer manufactured in India and intended to be used as a transport vehicles shall be registered unless its design has been approved by the Transport Commissioner.” The section deals with the locally manufactured trailers, their specifications and design.

“The transport commissioner has not yet laid down any design and specifications for the registration of tractor trolleys despite the UP Motor Vehicles Rules, 1998 clearly laying onus on him for doing so because the government is yet to approve the design the proposal for which was sent around a year ago,” pointed out the official.

As per the data collected from the transport department, only around 600 tractor trolleys (commercial) were registered in the state against more than 10,400 tractors registered for commercial activities. While the number of agricultural tractors in the state was more than 18.50 lakh, no agricultural trolley was registered in the state.

Another transport official said the design and registration of trolleys was not that important when it came to road accidents.

“The bottom line is that no tractor trolley can be used for the purpose of ferrying people for any purpose including rituals,” he said. “Only labourers required to reach a project site can travel in a trolley being used for work at the same site,” he added.