Haryana Transport department is facing problem of acute shortage of staff. About 50 per cent of the required staff is running the whole department which is not only inconvenient to the people but also to the Government which is losing on revenue.
Sources said the main problem is being faced by the field staff at Regional Transport Authorities (RTA) at the different places in the State. There are 21 districts in the State and due to shortage of staff, department has to do with only 10 Regional Transport Authorities (RTA) for 21 districts, which means one RTA has to control the work load of two districts at a time. There are certain RTAs which are controlling even three districts at a time.
Panchkula RTA covers three districts, including Yamunanagar and Ambala. Similarly except Faridabad and Gurgaon districts which have a dedicated RTA, rest of the districts have to share the RTA. RTA not only issues fitness certificates, authorisation and permits to the commercial vehicles of particular district but also collects road taxes from both commercial as well as personal vehicles besides issuing them registration certificates. RTA also has the responsibility of enforcement of rules related to the Motor Vehicle Act in the State and checks all the violators thereafter imposing penalties on them.
However, in most of the RTA, there are less than four people who run the office which controls the working of more than two districts. A well equipped RTA office is supposed to have a strength of ten people. It includes two district assistants, one secretary to RTA, one RTA, four clerks, one assistant and one accountant, one steno, one peon and one driver.
When asked Bhupinder Singh, AETC admitted that there is shortage of staff. He, however, said efforts are on to sort out this problem at the earliest. Most of the officials admitted that due to acute shortage of staff, the work of transport department has not only suffered but department is also bearing huge loss due to pilferage of taxes. “We can’t check all the violators on time, due to shortage of staff, hence they go scot free without even paying taxes to the government on time,” a senior official admitted.