BENGALURU: Initiating suomoto action over failure to address grievances of the public by the Motor Vehicle Inspectors and to implement social forestry scheme in Vijayapura district, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice BS Patil sought an explanation from the concerned authorities.
During Lokayukta's visit to Vijayapura on June 24, the general public pointed out the irregularities in the office of the Regional Transport Office and made allegations about the functioning of Motor Vehicle Inspectors at the check posts in Vijayapura.
Then he visited the Regional Transport Officer and found 2,437 applications relating to learning license, driving license, permit, registering the cases, imposing a penalty, etc., were kept on hold and have not been attended.
When enquired with Regional Transport Officer Ananda Parthanalli, it was brought to Lokayukta's notice that there are nine Motor Vehicle Inspectors working at check posts situated in Vijayapura district. A batch of three will be on duty at a time, but, there was no proper supervision over their functioning, punctuality and attending their duty, nature of the work done by them and also mechanism for receiving complaints against them.
In view of this, Lokayukta passed the order to implead the Secretary, Commissioner of the Transport Department, Joint Commissioner of Transport, Belagavi Division, RTO Ananda and others to the proceedings and directed them to examine the grievances pointed out by the general public and submit the report by August 19, 2022.
Vijauapura has the lowest forest area in the state:
During the visit, the general public have drew the attention of the Lokayukta that sufficient plants were not being supplied and sufficient plants were not put in place as a result of which there is lack of support for the growth of social forestry in the district.
Noting that as per National Forest Policy 1952, around 33 per cent of the total land in a given area should be forest which is the minimum requirement for maintaining ecological balance, Justice Patil observed that in Vijayapura district, at present, only 0.17 per cent are forest area, which is, unfortunately, the lowest in the state.
Explaining the impact of lack of social forestry, Lokayukta observed that any threat to the ecology can lead to the violation of the right to the enjoyment of healthy life guaranteed under Article 21 of the constitution. Therefore all efforts have to be made to improve the growth of forest and to conserve the existing forest by evolving effective schemes and projects, which is apparently lacking, he said while directing the authorities of forest and horticulture departments to submit the steps taken for plantation and supply of sufficient plants.