Tripura, 27 Dec 2025: Road accidents continue to rise across the state, claiming lives almost every day and leaving numerous families devastated. Despite the state government introducing new traffic laws, strengthening surveillance, and ordering regular patrols to curb road mishaps, ground realities tell a different story particularly in the Sabroom and Manubazar police station areas of South Tripura.
Local residents and members of the intelligentsia have raised serious allegations that for a long time, hundreds of impoverished laborers have been transported daily in overcrowded goods vehicles along national highways and hilly rural roads, right under the nose of the Sabroom and Manubazar police stations. According to complaints, a private contractor from outside the state—Advent Wellfield Service, currently executing projects allotted by ONGC—is allegedly involved in this unsafe mode of labor transportation.
Sources claim that every morning between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., laborers are packed into goods vehicles “like cattle” and transported from areas near the Satchand RD Block, close to Manubazar police station, to their work sites. In the evening, they are brought back in the same hazardous manner. Residents allege that despite this daily occurrence, no effective intervention from the local police has been observed.
This has led to serious questions among locals. While police are quick to impose fines for minor violations such as slight overloading, not wearing helmets, or documentation errors, how is it possible that human transportation in goods vehicles continues openly? If such a vehicle meets with an accident, who will be held responsible for the lives and safety of these laborers? Are they covered under any insurance or compensation scheme?
According to members of the intelligentsia, such illegal and dangerous transportation of workers is not merely a violation of traffic laws but also constitutes a serious breach of human rights. They fear that the administration’s silence could lead to a major tragedy in the near future.
The situation has raised pointed questions: Where is the Sabroom sub-divisional administration? Where is the monitoring by South District police officials? In the event of loss of life among these impoverished workers, who will take responsibility for their families?
So far, no response has been received from either the administration or the concerned contractor. However, local residents have demanded immediate and strict administrative action to put an end to these irregularities, warning that failure to do so may result in an unavoidable major accident in the coming days.
