As many as ten out of the 15 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) in Maharashtra are currently without in-charge officers, a situation one former official described as alarming.
Further, out of 35 deputy RTOs, eleven are without in-charge officers. In many places, junior officers have been given additional charge of these vacant posts, state Transport Department sources told PTI.
RTOs and deputy RTOs come under the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Department (MMVD) which is controlled by the Transport Commissioner’s office. Thousands of people visit the 50 Regional Transport Offices in Maharashtra every day for work related to vehicle registration, driving licenses and vehicle permits, among other things.
Notably, the transport portfolio has been with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for the last ten months. The posts of Regional Transport Officer (also abbreviated as RTO) are vacant at Andheri (Mumbai West), Wadala (Mumbai East), Panvel, Kolhapur, Nashik, Dhule, Aurangabad, Nagpur Rural, Nagpur City and Latur.
In Aurangabad, Nagpur Rural and Latur, the additional charge has been given to junior officers posted at Jalna, Gadchiroli and Osmanabad deputy RTO offices, respectively.
Similarly, at 11 of the 35 deputy RTO offices, there are no full-time in-charge officials. Hence, additional charge has been given to others. In deputy RTO offices like Kalyan, Sindhudurg, Beed, Wardha, Hingoli and Baramati, the additional charge has been given to junior officers of the assistant regional transport officer rank, sources said.
One can understand giving additional charge of a post to someone in the same office or same city, but in many cases the additional charge has been given to officers in other districts, posted 100 to 150 km away, said one official.
Even at the Transport Commissioner’s office, joint transport commissioner Jitendra Patil is holding additional charge of three posts: additional transport commissioner, joint transport commissioner (road safety) and deputy transport commissioner (encroachment-II).
The reason for vacancies was delayed promotions, and now things are so bad that posts of additional transport commissioner, joint transport commissioner and deputy transport commissioner cannot be filled without giving additional charge to existing officers or changing the rules, he said.
MMVD has over 4,100 posts, and the government has approved the creation of more than 440 new posts including five posts of joint transport commissioner.But another retired officer pointed out that the government seems to be unable to fill up the existing posts.
If regional transport offices can function with some officials handling additional charge, why does the department want to create more posts? It should abolish vacant posts, he said.