Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday,
September 27, 2016.
The functioning
of the then Nagpur city RTO D Pawar has come under scanner. It has come to fore
that Nitin Ukey, a motor vehicle inspector in Nagpur city, who was in the news
for an accidental shot fired from his official fire-arm that injured a truck
driver at the inter-state border check post at Deori in Gondia in November last
year, was there without being assigned any official work.
The rural RTO
office revealed this in reply to a RTI query filed by activist Nitin Tiwari.
For November 2015, the office of RTO Nagpur (rural), under whose jurisdiction
the four check posts are, had deployed four officers including three motor
vehicle inspectors and five assistant motor vehicle inspectors at Deori or
Shirpur's inter-state border check post under assistant RTO (in-charge) Pravin
Kapuria. Ukey's name was not in the duty list.
Sources
claimed posting at interstate border check-posts is very lucrative for RTO
inspectors who are ready to work there 24x7 as every vehicle entering
Maharashtra from Chhattisgarh has to pay an entry tax. There is a provision to
impose a fine if any truck is carrying more load than permitted.
Sources
alleged inspectors allow overloaded trucks to pass the post after pocketing
cash. Sources alleged RTO inspectors were illegally collecting Rs11,000 per
truck for allowing them to pass. "They charge them as per their whim and
not as per Motor Vehicles Act. They allow overloaded vehicles to pass by
accepting bribe from drivers," claimed Tiwari.
How Ukey was
presented at the check-post without official assignment has raised suspicion
over functioning of the transport department.
On November
14, Ukey's service revolver kept on some files on a table had apparently fell
and went off. The bullet hit Mohd Shabir Khan who had come to get his vehicle's
documents verified. Sources said incident took place at the crowded check post
office, where several truckers had queued up to present their documents to RTO
officers.
Though the
circumstances were still unclear, Ukey had neither informed of the incident to
police nor his seniors. Even though 10 months have passed, no complaint has
been lodged against Ukey and no action taken.
According to
sources, Ukey was earlier deputed in Nagpur rural, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur
and Gadchiroli districts and had a good rapport with transporters using Deori
post. Instead of taking action against Ukey, the rural RTO reportedly rewarded
the inspector by deputing him at the Khursapar check-post in December 2015,
revealed the RTI reply.
Nagpur city
RTO D Pawar, who is now shifted to Kolhapur and in-charge of east office deputy
RTO Ravindra Bhuyar are yet to take any action against Ukey and no inquiry has
been initiated against him. Transport commissioner Praveen Gedam assured to
look into the matter.
.JPG)
.JPG)
