Taking aggressive step to curb major corruption practices, Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra Government, in March, had directed Transport Department to close the Border Checkposts in State. But after the passage of 9 months of this announcement, these checkposts continue to function. The Study Group formed under the leadership of Transport Commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar had given a very comprehensive report on the basis of which Government took a decision to close the checkposts. A senior officer told ‘The Hitavada’, “Implementation of any process takes some time. The department got the instructions and accordingly we are closing the checkposts.”

 

The committee has in its report, along with other recommendations, clearly stated that technology can replace the human resources. At present, RTO officers are deployed at the checkposts. If the said technology as recommended by the committee is installed then there will be no need to deploy officers. The machine or the equipment will point out the irregularity and ask for the recovery of the fine. Shockingly, Transport Department has been receiving several complaints against the illegal recovery being made by Regional Transport Officers, but it is not doing anything. Former Additional Chief Secretary, on condition of anonymity, said that nothing would happen as some very senior officers are running this nexus. A senior RTO officer admitted that despite it is a known fact, everyone finds himself or herself helpless.

 

The checkposts around Nagpur are bigger ones from where large amount of money can be earned. Some officers despite their transfers to the places like Akola, Bhandara, Amravati, Khamgaon or elsewhere used to come to Nagpur to run the nexus, pointed out a source. One retired officer had held a meeting of like-minded ones to decide modus operandi (MO) as they are not willing to close the checkposts. According to reliable sources, RTO officers were involved in this recovery as they used to recover amount from underloaded as well as overloaded trucks, buses at check posts. The recovered sum of Nagpur rural area alone, if calculated, amounts to crores of rupees per month. Almost all of the above 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’s letter specifies MO Sudhakar Kohale, former MLA in his letter to Government had specified the modus operandi 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 trucks and recover Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per truck, the letter said. Around Nagpur there are checkposts in Khursapar, Deori, Kelzar etc. A fine of Rs 2 lakh is to be recovered from one truck driver if truck is overloaded. But RTO officers after taking 50% amount (Rs one lakh) used to allow the truck to go. According to a senior bureaucrat, the RTO officer concerned used to collect Rs 70-80 lakh from one checkpost daily.