Punjab: Vigilance raids hit work at state transport offices

Vigilance raids to arrest the officials allegedly involved in the driving licence scam have hit the functioning of the regional transport offices in different places, especially Mohali and Nawanshahr.

While Nawanshahr assistant transport officer Ramandeep Singh Dhillon has been arrested, two regional transport officers, Pardeep Singh Dhillon, RTO (Mohali) and PCS officer Ravinder Kumar Bansal, posted as RTO (Nawanshahr), are on the run. Sixteeen FIRs have been registered and 24 persons arrested, including private agents and govt employees.

The department is yet to appoint officials in place of the RTOs who are on the run. This has affected the approvals granted to the issuing of the driving licence (DL) and registration certificate (RC). Sources in the department said fearing more raids by the Vigilance Bureau (VB), the reduced presence of the lower-rung officials had affected the functioning of the RTOs.

Reports from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and other places suggest the functioning of the RTOs had been affected, resulting in harassment to the visitors. A senior government functionary said the department was in the process of posting RTOs at Nawanshahr and Mohali.

Officials said after the raids, the functioning of the 32 automated driving test tracks across the state had been affected. The VB indicated that the agents, in collusion with RTO officials, were copy-pasting old video footage of candidates who had passed the driving test, and uploading it under the names of new applicants who never actually took the test. In many cases, the same vehicle was used multiple times, raising suspicion. Proxy drivers were also made to take tests on behalf of others, using vehicles arranged by agents.

Pendency of over 2LDLs, RCs

Despite making efforts to clear the backlog of the RCs and DLs, there was a pendency of near 2 lakh RCs and DLs. The department was daily printing 8,000 RCs and DLs from its resources. Initially, the backlog was near 4.5 lakh.

Transport Minister Laljit Bhullar said efforts were on to streamline the functioning of the RTOs and appoint the officials wherever required. He said he was himself inspecting the offices of the RTOs.