Mah Govt decides to close Border Checkposts, forms Study Group
| Date :28-Apr-2022 |
Staff Reporter
Maharashtra Government has directed Transport Department to close the Border Checkposts in State. It has also formed a Study Group to study the closure of checkposts and the impact of the decision. The Committee is expected to come out with the possible solutions. Government has referred to the letter by Union Ministry of Road, Transport, Highways before taking this decision.
The Study Group has Avinash Dhakne, Transport Commissioner as its Chairman. The Committee has Dinkar Manvar, Deputy Commissioner (Transport); Tulshidas Solanki, Deputy Commissioner (Accounts); Rajendra Madne, Deputy Commissioner (Transport) and Ajit Shinde, Regional Transport Officer, Pune as members.
The Study Group is expected to decide the work system of closure of Border Checkposts in Maharashtra. The Committee will also study what kind of process is to be applied to close the Border Checkposts. Government has asked the Study Group to study the possible financial load to be bore by Government after the closure of Border Checkposts. The Committee will study the subsequent effect and provide their solutions to Government. Government has asked the Committee to furnish the report within a period of three months.
Transport Department of State has received several complaints against the illegal recovery being made by Regional Transport Offices. RTO officers were involved in this recovery as they used to amount from underload as well as overload trucks, buses at check posts.
The recovered sum of Nagpur rural alone if calculated, is in some crores of rupees. It is collected every month. This is going on since years together.
The vested interests of some rich transporters have given birth to the nexus between them and RTO officers. These allegations are made in complaints lodged by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, ex-MLA Sudhakar Kohale and some transporters. Ministry of Transport had begun the enquiry.
Had that enquiry been conducted, it would have brought several surprising elements to the fore. Unfortunately, nobody knows whether that enquiry was conducted or not.
Kohale in his letter had specified the modus operendi of how RTO officers allegedly minted money.
Checkposts are basically created to collect GST and as per the planning, no truck or such private vehicle need to stop at checkpost except at the weighing bridge.
The truck with 28 tonnes load doesn’t need to pay the amount more than Rs 160 as the weighing charges. RTO vehicle used to stop these vehicles and recovered Rs 500 to Rs 1,000/- per truck, Kohale pointed out in his letter.
Lot of hype was experienced at Deori checkpost where RTO officers allegedly looted people.
Recenly, Congress leader Bunty Shelke conducted sting operation and caught some cases red-handed. In fact before his arrival some officers fled from the site.