Shillong, April 29: The East Garo Hills district administration last night arrested five persons while they were allegedly extorting money from coal trucks on National Highway 62, continuing with the crackdown on illegal collection along the highway.

With the latest arrest, the total number of apprehended persons along the “lucrative” national highway in the past fortnight has climbed up to 41. Of these, 30 are truck drivers booked for overloading coal while 11 were alleged extortionists.

Yesterday, East Garo Hills police arrested Letho Sangma, 40, Badal Sen, 40, Tajang N. Sangma, 18, Dickey G. Momin, 21, and Bikking N. Sangma, 22, while they were allegedly collecting money from coal trucks at the Dobu transport weighbridge, which has been closed down because of expiry of licence.

Earlier, the weighbridge belonged to one Jonathan Sangma, East Garo Hills deputy commissioner Pravin Bakshi said today. Dobu is the entry point to East Garo Hills along the national highway.

On Wednesday, the police arrested 12 drivers of coal-laden trucks for overloading. Another six were apprehended over the last 10 days. In the past year, the district administration also collected around Rs 4.89 crore as royalty from the national highway.

The arrests came after the district authorities decided to crack the whip on trucks carrying anything in excess of 9 metric tonnes, as specified by the Supreme Court.

National Highway 62 — a highly commercial route, thanks to the hundreds of coal-laden trucks plying through it — is around 195km in length and starts from Damra in Assam and ends in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills.

The issues related to the national highway was prominently highlighted in the budget session held last month which paved the way for the establishment of a Joint House Committee to inquire into the alleged illegal collections along the national highways of the state.

The eight-member committee headed by Congress legislator Lahkmen Rymbui, comprises legislators from both benches of the House.

It will submit its report within six months to the Assembly, Meghalaya Speaker Charles Pyngrope had announced during the session.

The committee had sought information from departments like the mining and geology, transport, taxation, district council affairs and others on the legality of putting up tollgates/checkpoints along national highways.

The Opposition NCP had also suggested setting up of integrated checkgates for uniform and unified system of tax collection to check leakage of revenue.

Yesterday, Bakshi said in the past year alone, the district administration generated additional royalty of Rs 4,89,59,507 for the state exchequer.

He said of this amount, Rs 2,72,68,289 were generated as fines collected by the magistrates and from auctioning the excess coal.