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No more hand post, only Speed Post
The Hans India has done it again. Yet another story published in these columns has awakened the authorities, who have gone into an accelerating mode. This time around, following the publication of the report on October 22 that was headlined, ‘Speed Post delivery of cards a hogwash’ that gave a graphic account of corruption at RTA offices, particularly on the context of delivery of licence, registration of vehicles,
Hyderabad: The Hans India has done it again. Yet another story published in these columns has awakened the authorities, who have gone into an accelerating mode. This time around, following the publication of the report on October 22 that was headlined, ‘Speed Post delivery of cards a hogwash’ that gave a graphic account of corruption at RTA offices, particularly on the context of delivery of licence, registration of vehicles, transfer of ownership, no objection certificate and other services directly.
Defying established norms, the applicants were called by the official to collect vehicle documents personally while sending by Speed Post was to be the custom. Taking cognizance of the report, the department conducted a probe within three months of publishing the report.
The enquiry revealed that officials collected Rs 100 to Rs 150 from applicants and handed over the cards. Rules say that the department has to send the cards only by Speed Post towards which the applicant had to pay postal charges of Rs 35. A fortnight after taking charge as Transport Commissioner, Sandeep Kumar Sultania issued orders to all the Road Transport Authority (RTA) centres in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts to stop handing over licence, registration of vehicles, transfer of ownership, no objection certificate and other services directly to the applicants.
The idea of introducing the delivery of cards through Speed Post was to ensure proper address proof and reduce the interface of middlemen and improve transparency and accountability of the RTA. The findings indicated that only a miniscule was sent by Speed Post.
At the Uppal Testing Track-cum-RTA Office, about 800 transactions take place daily but only 200 cards are sent by Speed Post. In Trimulgherry, the average transactions per day is 350 to 400 but just 75 to 100 are sent by Speed Post. In Khairtabad at the Central Zone office, out of the 450 transactions only 100 cards are sent by Speed Post.
On an average, 3,600 cards are generated each day taking into consideration all the ten RTA offices spread over Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts. On an average, about 2,800 cards are handed over directly to the applicants. This implies that a little over Rs 21.50 lakh collected for handling Speed Post charges remain ‘accumulated’. With the new orders that mandate Speed Post delivery coming into force from Thursday, the more upright employees in the RTA are hopeful that there could be a sizeable reduction in the rampant corruption that prevails.
By:T P Venu
