CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the State government to implement a rehabilitation plan for the agents who have been debarred entry into Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) within one month.
The single judge bench of Justice Biswanath Rath has warned the State Transport Secretary that failure to comply with the order within the stipulated time will be construed as ‘deliberate violation of this Court’s order’.
Justice Rath issued the order while hearing a contempt petition alleging that the government has failed to work out a rehabilitation plan for them as per the directions of the Court in November this year. In his order, Justice Rath said, “As this Court finds, no purpose will be served in issuing notice in such matter, the contempt petition stands disposed of with a direction to the Transport Secretary to work out the direction of this Court issued on November 15, 2019 within a period of one month”.
In a letter on September 27, 2019, the Transport Commissioner had debarred entry of agents into the RTOs and decided to lodge FIR against agents who would be found violating such instruction. The order included installation of e-Kiosk in all RTOs for the convenience of the public. The instruction was challenged in the Court by some agents mainly on the ground of loss of livelihood.
In the November 15, 2019 order, the Court directed the Transport Secretary to identify and maintain a list of such agents regularly practicing under different RTOs by collecting data from each transport office and attempt to accommodate them in manning the e-Kiosks.
“Steps for installation of e-Kiosks dependant on workload of each RTO be completed within a period of six weeks. The e-Kiosks shall run or be manned through the identified agents as far as practicable. Entire exercise in the light of the above direction be completed within a period of two months hence”, the Court had directed.