Advocates, DTO lock horns again in city

Shivani Bhakoo

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Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 9

The Regional Transport Office and the lawyers again locked horns over providing a “separate” counter to the latter for settling challans.

The Transport Department staff alleged that the lawyers “misbehaved” with the public and working at the office had to be halted. The lawyers said the Transport Department should provide them with a special counter as they represented public.

Lovjit Kalsi, Transport Officer, said because of the shifting of the department, they were suffering an acute staff crunch. Just three persons are working and of them, one is on leave today. “So, we decided to run just one counter for the public. The lawyers asked for a separate counter for them. We tried to make them understand but they refused to listen to us. Instead, they started misbehaving with the public and work was halted. The visitors had to suffer. The matter reached the Deputy Commissioner and ultimately, the police were called. We had been providing them with a separate counter till now, but as we are facing the staff crunch, they should also cooperate with us,” said the official.

The lawyers said a handful of them represented a huge public at government offices. “If we were not there, it would become impossible for the office to deal with such huge rush of public. They should provide us with a separate counter, so that we do our duty smoothly. If we are charging money for getting the challans settled, the department officials/staff are also doing the same. We will make sure that no ugly incidents take place at the office due to visitor rush and they must not suffer unnecessarily,” said the acting president of the District Bar Association, Harjot Singh.