Two weeks after RTA Secretary’s transfer, challaning drive stops, pendency piles up

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, November 9

Two weeks after Dr Poonam Preet Kaur was shifted from the post of Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Secretary here, the challaning of traffic rules’ violators has come to a standstill and the pendency has again started piling up at the Transport Department’s regional office in Ludhiana.

In the absence of any enforcement in the field, violations of the traffic rules, including plying of illegal buses without valid permits, oversized and overloaded heavy vehicles, especially trucks and trailers, have become a common sight on busy roads passing through the district, posing a major risk to commuters.

Besides, the people have been hassled for the delay in the delivery of service as files pertaining to the issuance of new documents and renewal or revision of old documents has again started piling up here.

The new Regional Transport Officer (RTO), Randeep Singh, who had replaced Dr Poonam and had joined here on October 26, admitted that he had not yet begun the challaning drive and the delivery of various services was being streamlined.

“Since my ID has not yet been generated, which is required for e-challaning, I’m yet to begin the challans,” Singh reasoned while assuring to clear the pendency, if any, in the delivery of services at the office.

According to official information available with The Tribune, over 6,000 files of various services were lying pending for clearance since October 26 when the new RTO had joined here.

The pendency includes 1,744 new RCs, 3,192 old RCs and other transactions, 576 vehicle fitness passing certificates, and 568 permits. Besides, the cases of issuance of learner’s, new regular and renewal of old driving licenses (DLs) have also piled up here.

It was in January when the 2016-batch PCS officer Dr Poonam had joined here as the RTA Secretary after her predecessor, Narinder Singh Dhaliwal, was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) for allegedly running an organised crime racket to collect money as bribes from transporters.

She had cracked the whip on violators of the traffic rules and had acted tough against transporters running illegal vehicles, especially buses and trucks/ trailers, without valid permits and tax evasion.

She had also cleared the pendency backlog of DLs, vehicle RCs and all other allied services in Ludhiana district.

The doctor-turned-bureaucrat was among 50 PCS officers, who were reshuffled in the state. She has been posted as the SDM at Payal in Ludhiana.

Though the public had attributed her exit to a tough stance against the violators, which had irked mainly the “all-powerful” transporter lobby, the government had denied any such reason and has termed the transfer as “routine on administrative grounds”. “It was a routine process and has nothing to do with any so-called pull or pressure,” a senior officer had told The Tribune.

However, the transporters and those, who had been finding it hard to escape the action for violations and getting their illegal jobs done, were upbeat over the transfer.

Setting an example, Dr Poonam had cleared the entire pendency of DLs, RCs and all other allied services at her office till October 24, the day she received her transfer order and relinquished her charge.

During her less than nine-month stint, she had slapped a fine of whopping over Rs 1.64 crore on violators and had challaned almost 681 vehicles, mostly heavy, including illegal buses/ trucks/ trailers and those attached with schools, for various violations and tax evasion. Besides, 364 vehicles, mainly the illegally plying buses and trucks without valid permits and routes, had also been impounded.

Besides issuing almost 67,000 DLs of different forms, the RTA Secretary had also issued RCs to around 60,000 new vehicles registered in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, during the past less than nine months.

With this, the RTA had collected a whopping revenue amounting to over Rs 271 crore since January.

It was done despite staff shortage and other shortcomings in the system. Most of the backlog cleared during this year was lying pending since previous years during the tenure of her predecessors.

Dr Poonam, who has herself led the entire office staff to work overtime for clearing the years and months-old backlog, had cleared the pending files pertaining to various services related to DLs, vehicle RCs, and other allied deliveries, which were complete in all respects and were received till October 24.

The RTA Secretary had processed the DL and RC applications received till October 24 with the issuance of relevant certificates to applicants while the documents at present lying pending at the scrutiny or verification stage were mostly delayed due to the shortcomings/ deficiencies at the level of applicants.

With the clearance and issuance of all cases, which were found complete in all respects, no file of driving licence was left pending before Dr Poonam had left the charge.

According to the official figures, as many as 66,874 new DLs, including 49,341 learner’s, 15,418 regular, and 2,115 international, were issued here this year till October 24.

On the RCs front, a total of 59,179 new vehicles were registered in the district since January 1, of which the RCs were issued to 58,916 applicants.

Besides, the RTA office had processed a whopping 2,56,119 transactions for various services pertaining to RCs from which the revenue amounting to Rs 270,94,34,829 was generated this calendar year till October 24. Besides, a total of 1,25,889 applications for DLs of all forms, including learner’s, regular, international, conductor and others were received.

Dubious past

The office of the Ludhiana RTA Secretary has a dubious past. The then incumbent Narinder Singh Dhaliwal was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau for allegedly running an organised crime racket to collect money as bribe from transporters.

During the probe of a complaint lodged at the CM’s Anti-Corruption Action Line on November 18 last, the Vigilance had found that he was indulged in collecting bribes through some private persons from different transporters on a monthly basis at Ludhiana on the pretext of not issuing challans of their vehicles.

Following the arrest, the working of the RTA Secretary’s office had come to a standstill, which had led to the pendency of various services.

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