RTI activist alleges discrepancies in RTO fuel bills, seeks VB probe

Times of India: Ludhiana: Friday, February 03, 2025.

The case of alleged discrepancies in fuel bills of the Ludhiana Regional Transport Office (RTO) has reached the chief minister's office and Vigilance Bureau. In his complaint to the VB and CM office, local RTI activist Ajay Sharma said that the serial numbers of fuel bill receipts of the RTO, for the period April 2021 to Sep 2021, did not match. The activist procured the bills from the office of the accountant general office and RTO under the Right to Information Act.

In his complaint, Sharma said that as per records received from the AG office, fuel bills passed between April 2021 and July 2021 did not match receipts of fuel bills provided by Ludhiana RTO under RTI. This indicates that entries in the logbook were forged, he alleged. He said that in both records, the fuel bill receipt issued by the same filling station, dated Feb 24, 2021, had separate serial numbers, such as 10544 and 11261. The complainant also noted that fuel bills issued by a filling station on Feb 24, 2021 and submitted for clearance had two separate serial numbers.

The serial number of the fuel bill issued on April 7, 2021 and on July 15, 2021, had the same serial number, 112712. Additionally, two fuel receipts issued on March 27, 2021, had serial numbers 11270 and 10550.

Also, the series mentioned on the bills did not match despite the fact that they were issued on the same date, March 27, 2021. The logbook mentions a single entry of fuel. Records revealed that from April 1, 2021 to July 18, 2021, fuel receipts had serial numbers from 8201 to 8222, which were cleared by the treasury. A month later, from Sep 13, 2021, to Sep 13, 2021, fuel bills mentioned serial numbers as 8201, 8205, 8209, and 8212.

Sharma further said that on his RTI application seeking details of fuel bills of 2021, Ludhiana RTO issued him a letter on Dec 23, 2024, saying that they only had fuel expense receipts from Jan 1, 2021, to July 31, 2021. Except for this, they said that they did not have any record of that year. Sharma has sought a VB probe into this saying that it led to losses for the govt exchequer.