With overloaded trucks criss-crossing Howrah and also frequently causing accidents after entering the city, the district motor vehicles (MV) department has decided to undertake a special drive against the heavy-duty offenders.

It has also decided to haul up motorcycle-owners evading the newly-imposed lifetime tax on their vehicles.

Starting early next week, officials of the MV department, along with the police, will keep a watch on and penalise heavy vehicles for carrying goods beyond the permitted capacity.

The resolve comes days after The Telegraph revealed in a series of reports how overloaded trucks were causing accidents on the city streets.

It has been decided that every overloaded truck will be fined Re 1 per kg of overload, along with a penalty of Rs 2,000. ?The vehicles will be impounded and handed over to the police if the guilty truck-owner or driver refuses to pay the penalty,? said Sukumar Dutta, regional transport officer of Howrah.

The MV department has also identified over 15,000 motorcycle-owners who have not paid the new lifetime tax for their two-wheelers.

?This figure makes up 40 per cent of the total number of motorcycles that ply in Howrah,? said Dutta.

Officials of the MV department recently embarked upon a survey to find out the exact number of two-wheeler owners evading the lifetime tax.

?To our astonishment, we found out that a huge chunk of two-wheeler owners were not paying taxes and causing us losses to the tune of over Rs 10 lakh,? said senior enforcement officials of the department.

It has been decided that a six-member inspection team of the MV department?s enforcement wing, with the help of other MV officials, will conduct raids across the districts, starting Tuesday, to zero down on the tax evaders.

?We have identified the areas in Howrah where we will keep a tight vigil. We will not reveal the names of the places for the sake of investigation,? another official said.

The MV officials are expecting to earn a revenue of over Rs 15 lakh from the drives against the defaulters. Officials further said that the guilty motorcycle-owners are liable to be prosecuted and their vehicles seized.

Owing to a severe funds crunch, the state government decided in 2003 to introduce a lifetime tax scheme for owners of two-wheelers, unlike the earlier rules that fixed taxes for 15 years, based on the weight of the vehicle.

Under the new tax system, motorcycle and scooter-owners have to pay a one-time tax according to the power of the engine, officials explained.