As many as 12,000 job aspirants out of about 20,000 have submitted fake driving licence to secure a driver’s job in Haryana.
This was revealed by Haryana Transport Minister Krishan lal Pawar on Thursday.
The Transport Minister while talking to the mediapersons said that the process is ongoing for the recruitment of 725 new drivers in the State. During the scrutiny of about 20000 applications received for driver’s job, it was found that about 12000 applicants have submitted fake driving licence.
These fake licences were issued from different States like Jharkhand, Nagaland etc, said he.
Following this, the Transport Minister has now asked officials concerned to look into the matter and proceed as per the rules against the applicants who have submitted forged documents to secure driver’s job.
The Minister added that strict action would be taken against those found using fake driving license.
Haryana Roadways has a fleet of 4200 buses, which is expected to be increased to 5000 by the end of this year. While the orders for the purchase of 300 new buses have already been given, the remaining buses would be purchased later on by the Transport Department.
Besides increasing the number of buses, the process is on for the recruitment of 725 new drivers and 636 other technical staff in the state. Apart from this, requisition has been sent to Haryana Staff Selection Commission for recruitment on regular basis, said the Minister.
At present, Haryana Roadways is reeling under loss of `450 crore and also suffering due to huge staff crunch.
The Minister while announcing the new transport policy, hiring private buses to ply on kilometer basis in the state, said that to cater to the need of passengers, the State Government has decided to avail the services of buses of private operators in the fleet of Haryana Roadways.
Pawar said that though, initially there is a proposal to hire 500 private buses under the scheme, the number of buses would be increased to 5000 later, according the demand of the passengers. Every day, 17 lakh passengers could travel in the buses of State Roadways as against the demand of 40 lakh passengers.
As the Haryana Roadways is already reeling under loss of `450 crore, it would not have been possible to purchase 10,000 new buses in one go therefore, the private operators would be roped in, said the Transport Minister.
Giving details of the losses of Roadways, the Minister added that around `226 crore losses are due to free facility to various passengers throughout the year, pending amount not paid by various Departments like Police Department for using State roadways every year.
When asked about private buses running under the garb of roadways banner, the Minister said that 50-60 such bogus buses are plying in the State and strict action would be taken against them.
“In a major mistake, the State roadways buses were auctioned without removing its paint and their owners are now operating such buses in the name of State roadways. Directions have already been given to change the colour of buses of Haryana Roadways in the workshop before their auction,” added the Minister.