Transporting animals sans safety is crime: Transport Commissioner Sandeep Kumar Sultania

Hyderabad: Now, cruelty of animals during transportation will be treated as a crime and the transporters would have to pay hefty penalties if the cattle including buffalo, horse, sheep etc., are transported without any safety measures.

According to the officials, as per the new Act, it's mandatory now to create partitions in the vehicles so as to keep the animals safe during the transportation. The new Central Motor Vehicle Rule 125 (E) specifies safety of the animals while transported in vehicles.

The State government has decided to sensitise the transporters about the safety of the animals. The district transport officers (DTOs) and district veterinary officers would be creating awareness among the lorry and other vehicle owners regarding the special requirements for transporting animals in motor vehicles.

As per the rule, the motor vehicles carrying animals should have permanent partitions in the body of the vehicle so that the animals are carried individually in each portion where the size of the partition should not be less than the prescribed norm.

The official informed that the vehicles carrying cows should have partition of 2 square metres, for horses and mares it should have 2.25 square metres space, for sheep, goat and pigs it should be 0.6 square metres and for poultry it should be 40 square cm.

The officials would also make sure that motor vehicle meant for transporting animals will not be permitted to carry any other goods. The DTOs have been asked to ensure that vehicles meant for carrying animals be modified in accordance with the provisions of the new law.

A special provision has been made in the software of the department to register as separate category goods carriages specifically meant for carrying animals as per Rule 125(E) of CMV rules, said the official. The official further said that first they would sensitise the vehicle owners and later they would impose penalties.

Transport Commissioner Sandeep Kumar Sultania has said that the department officials would exclusively monitor the movement of animals at check posts, especially in inter-State routes. The commissioner directed the DTOs to monitor the conversion and registration of special category vehicle once in every week.