HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has been contemplating breaking the TSRTC hegemony, by issuing permits to private players to ply close to 2,000-3,000 buses in the State. The decision is on the anvil, pending the Cabinet’s nod. However, the Transport Department, which will now be the nodal agency for enforcing and regulating these private buses, appears to be severely short-staffed. It is learnt from highly-placed sources that at least 87 vacancies exist for the posts of Motor Vehicle Inspectors (MVI) and Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspectors (AMVI), out of the sanctioned 340 positions — 141 MVIs and 199 AMVIs. This makes the ratio between the ground staff and the vehicles to be checked highly skewed.
The TSRTC had already employed strict measures to check various aspects of their buses in terms of fare collection, fitness of conductors and drivers, licence checks, permit checks, etc, which were then vetted by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA). However, these will now be an additional responsibility for the RTA, which will have to act as a regulatory body above the private players set to enter the market.
The vacancies have left merely 253 MVIs and AMVIs to manage the growing number of vehicles in the State, by overseeing the ground-level works like issue of licence, issue of permits, vehicle fitness, etc. In fact, even several senior positions in the RTA are lying vacant. For instance, the District Transport Offices for the new districts is yet to get full-time heads, and the position is being held by other officials on an additional-charge basis.
“While nothing is finalised, the department will still need additional staff on various levels to enforce the rules better. Once the new proposal is made public, we will have more clarity. We may promote staff to higher levels and even induct about 100 to 150 more personnel,” said an official, on condition of anonymity.
In fact, this staff crunch was highlighted in a 2018 CAG report for the financial year 2016-17 as well, which stated there was a 28.83% staff shortage in the Transport Department, which made revenue and enforcement activities inefficient.
The report also highlighted how the department lagged behind in the implementation of e-VCR — a method to electronically save the Vehicle Check Reports done on every number plate to facilitate compounding penalties. This is extremely crucial, as the penalties under MV tax are low and the private players often opt to pay the penalty rather than follow the rules. The lack of past reports being available to the inspector makes it easier for the vehicle to escape harsh punishment if any. The report also mentions how the department has not begun the use of speed guns, mobile interceptors and breath analysers to catch hold of defaulters.
Section of RTC workers seeks seer’s support
A few TSRTC workers, who have been on strike for the past 26 days, on Wednesday headed to Chinna Jeeyar Swamy’s ashram in Muchintal, and urged him to convince CM K Chandrasekhar Rao to accept the unions’ demands. Chinna Jeeyar is the CM’s spiritual guru and the latter had visited the seer just a few days ago. The employees expressed their grievances to the seer and urged him to intervene in the matter. However, the TSRTC JAC distanced themselves from this meeting. “We do not endorse their choice. They may have gone there as part of personal faith. However, no JAC leader has sought any kind of help from him,” said Thomas Reddy, JAC leader. The workers who went there were reportedly from Rajendra Nagar and Maheshwaram depots
CM holds meet to discuss line of argument to be presented before HC
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao held a meeting with Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar and other officials at Pragathi Bhavan on Wednesday. As the High Court directed the RTC in-charge managing director to appear before the court along with a financial official on Friday, in order to explain the actual financial status of the RTC, the chief minister discussed the line of the arguments to be presented before the court. The State government had already claimed that it had been a much better financial support to RTC in the last six years, when compared to the AP government. In the final five years of combined AP, the TSRTC got `712 crore from the State government. The TRS government released `4,550 crore to TSRTC, which was 595 per cent more than the funds released by combined AP, he said. The same will be explained to the HC on Friday