Despite the recent announcement of the Regional Transport Office to penalise the Vikram Tempo operators under Section 71 of Uttarakhand Motor Vehicle Act 2011, operators can still be seen flouting the norms openly in the State capital.
Additional Regional Transport Officer ARTO (Enforcement), RP Rathore said the officials were conducting checking drives on regular basis and had imposed challan on around 150 Vikram tempos from January onwards. He said offenders were being penalised Rs 500 each time they were found violating the norms. As per the latest announcement by the RTO, these operators were supposed to adhere to the contract permit according to which they were free to drive within 25 km radius from the designated centre point. They were not supposed to pick passengers from mid way on the route. All the eight seater should necessarily keep a log book in their vehicle and wear a uniform too as per Section 71 of MV Act. But none these operators were following any of the norms.
Source at the RTO revealed that the log books were meant to record daily details of the route visited by the operators, names and total number of passengers transported by them. Notably, most of the Vikram tempo are being operated according to the stage carriage permit. RTO officials claimed to have seized around 12 Vikram tempos.