The huge sum that is being minted by the officers attached to Regional Transport Office (RTO Rural) by recovering the same from the underloaded as well as overloaded trucks, buses at checkposts near Nagpur, if calculated, comes close to 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, some transporters. Now, the Ministry of Transport has begun the enquiry. Highly placed sources in the department told ‘The Hitavada’, it is a big scam and several surprising elements may come to the fore.

 

Checkposts are basically created to collect GST and as per the planning, no truck or such private vehicle need to stop at checkpost as the arrangement except at the weighing bridge. But RTO officers have come with different modus oprendi. The underloaded truck is that which has material of 18 tonne plus its own weight upto 10 tonnes, which means it should bear 28 tonnes. The truck with 28 tonnes weight doesn’t need to pay the amount more than Rs 160 as the weighing charges of which it receives the receipt too. But after truck leaves the checkpost, the RTO vehicle stops it and pointing at some deficiencies recovers Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. There are several trucks commute from the check posts so one can imagine how much the hefty sum, the RTO officers must be minting. The trucks overloaded (carrying load more than 28 tonnes) pay Rs 12,500 to the RTO officer and move ahead.

 

Their passing by RTO, put them into danger as on several occasions such trucks due to heavy load met with the accidents. Sudhakar Kohale in his letter to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray explained the modus operendi of this illegal recovery. He said, “The recovery is made from each vehicle to the tune of Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500. At some checkposts, the recovery reaches Rs 4,000. This recovery is made from the vehicles which don’t violate the rules. For example the recovery is between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000 per vehicle on Lakkadkot- Chandrapur Andhra road per day. Average 15,000 vehicles commute on this road, so the amount comes to Rs 75 lakh daily. In one month, the recovery is made to the tune of Rs 23 crore.

 

This is only about the recovery from the trucks don’t violate the rules.” The officers are supposed to stay at their workplaces. But on most occasions people don’t find them in their offices. Instead they visit the site as a part of flying squad. These flying squads raid trucks carrying mud, crushed stones, sand with overload by 20 to 25 tonnes. Such trucks are expected to pay fine of Rs 1-1.25 lakh to RTO and 2-2.5 lakh to Government. Average 8,000 overloaded trucks commute from the road then the approximate revenue comes to Rs 240 crore. But the RTO officers recover over Rs 6 crore, effecting the loss of revenue of Government of over Rs 200 crore. Kohale pointed out, if that revenue is deposited with the Government it would make wonder. Earlier also, there were several complaints lodged against some RTO officers and the then Minister Sarupsingh Naik had ordered an enquiry. Unfortunately, no step was taken.

 

The issue has come to the fore again. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in his letter especially named the checkposts Kelwad, Khursapar, Kandri, Deori where the officers is troubling transporters. Despite complaints against the RTO officers, they have succeeded in protecting themselves, pointed out Gadkari in his complaint. He has requested Chief Secretary to look personally into the issue and conduct enquiry against officers and take legal action. Transport Ministry of Maharashtra has taken serious cognizance of the complaint.

 

Enquiry will reveal the truth: Kharmate ‘The Hitavada’ talked to Bajrang Kharmate Deputy RTO of Chandrapur having additional charge of Nagpur rural as his name was mentioned in the complaints. Kharmate replied, “The enquiry is under way and it will not be proper for me to speak. Whatever the truth, will be known to everybody after the submission of enquiry report. I shall not speak on the issue.”