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Uttar Pradesh: Surprise inspections ordered to check unauthorised personnel in transport department offices
As the transport department’s offices headed by RTOs and ARTOs have various direct public dealing counters, the Uttar Pradesh government has taken strong exception to the situation therein.
The Uttar Pradesh government has asked for surprise inspections at transport department offices to check the deployment of unauthorised and non-government personnel for carrying out official work. The directive appears to be an admission of gross irregularities, indiscipline, and possibly even corruption, in functioning of state transport department offices at some places in Uttar Pradesh.
As the transport department’s offices headed by RTOs and ARTOs have various direct public dealing counters, the Uttar Pradesh government has taken strong exception to the situation therein.
“It has come to the government’s notice that the department’s government workers directly or indirectly deploy unauthorized/unwanted personnel to carry out their work, instead of working themselves. This act, besides being objectionable, shows that such workers do not have any interest in carrying out government work. The state government may face an uncomfortable situation in view of the illegal work by unauthorised persons/unwanted persons being carried out in personal interest,” said special secretary, transport, Lutavan Ram, in an order dated November 30, 2022 sent to all the deputy transport commissioners, RTOs and ARTOs.
The special secretary’s order reflects on how the situation has not changed despite the transport department’s most services going online. It also indicates how the transport department’s personnel were sharing their IDs and passwords with unauthorized non-government workers.
“In this regard, I have been directed to say that the departmental work should be carried out only by the government personnel appointed for the purpose. They (transport department personnel) should not share their login id, password or OTP with unauthorised, private or non-government personnel to ensure that no unpleasant or confusing situation is created.”
It asks all the supervisory officers to conduct surprise inspections of the offices working under their supervision and ensure that the state government’s directives were fully complied with.
“All the transport officers working in the state should therefore conduct surprise inspections and 100 per cent compliance of these directives. Please ensure strict compliance of these directives,” the order reads.
A senior officer of the transport department said some complaints of deployment of unauthorised personnel for official work may have compelled the state government to issue such an order.
The officer said most of the services of the department have gone online and vendors have been appointed for work like taking pictures for driving licences etc. He said the dealers were also doing basic work for registration of vehicles and hence there was no question of deploying unauthorized personnel for official work. A retired officer, however, admitted that there was a tendency to deploy private personnel, belonging to various transport dealers/agencies, to carry out work like verification or uploading of documents and this may lead to an embarrassing situation.
He said the transport department was facing a shortage of staff at many places and hence there may be complaints of making use of private personnel for official work.
