Expressindia.com:Ludhiana: Raakhi Jagga:Tuesday, February 14, 2012.
Information through the Right to Information (RTI) Act taken by Varinder Singh, a resident of Akal Market, reveals that of a total of 263 vehicles which the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) owns, 200 are outdated but still running on roads.
Not only this, a total of 152 drivers of these vehicles are either beldars, sweepers, sewermen or others. Only 65 are `officially’ drivers.
According to the rules of Municipal Corporation itself, no vehicle can run on roads after reaching the of nine years. However, the majority are running on roads and a number of accidents are also reported every now and then by civic body drivers due to rash driving or the poor condition of the vehicles.
The details of the RTI information add that 17 vehicles of the fire brigade are outdated more than nine years old and a few are even more than 20 years old.
Most of these vehicles are used as fire tenders, for garbage lifting and other purposes. The details revealed that 75 beldars and 39 safai sewaks are driving these vehicles instead of doing the job for which they have been appointed.
Four chowkidaars, 8 cleaners, 1 fitter and four others are also driving vehicles instead of doing their official jobs. They have no formal training in driving and learnt from the regular drivers during the course of time.
Only 65 are regular drivers who have been appointed for driving the vehicles. It needs to be mentioned that in the past, a number of accidents occurred in which overspeeding drivers had crushed people to death. On those occasions, it was highlighted that the vehicles were driven either by beldars or chowkidaars.
Varinder Singh asked the Municipal Corporation authorities to make necessary changes so that safety of people can be ensured on city roads.
.JPG)
.JPG)
