The Regional Transport Office of Dehradun lacks necessary instruments required to check regular traffic violations in the city.
As per the Regional Transport Officer, Dinesh Chandra Pathoi, the alcolmeters of the department have been out of order for more than one year and the officials responsible are not bothered to take necessary action in this case. He stated that he has already informed the administration about it but nothing has been done in this matter yet.
Pathoi informed that RTO was provided an interceptor vehicle in 2004, which is presently out of order. This vehicle has speed gun, alcometers and other tools needed for traffic enforcement. He said that he has also informed the higher officials about these shortcomings of RTO. RTO is also lacking some other necessary instruments like speed radar gun and interceptor vehicles, which can easily help in checking the traffic nuisance.
Sandeep Saini, ARTO (Administration), said that the Dehradun RTO is lacking basic instruments-mainly the alcometers and speed radar gun. He added that these instruments are out of order for quite some time now. RTO officials are also facing much difficulty in enforcing the traffic rules and keep an eye on traffic violators in absence of these vehicles, claimed Arvind Kumar Pandey, ARTO (Enforcement).
He added that though the department keeps organising awareness drives from time to time to educate people about the risks of drunk driving and other traffic violations, the office needs the basic instruments to make its enforcement drives effective on a large scale. According to Pandey, the transport department is also lacking sufficient enforcement vehicles.
He said that the vehicles presently in use in the department are old models (2004) which don’t even work properly. He said these vehicles need to be changed. In the absence of the required instruments RTO officials are unable to check the over-speeding drivers and the traffic violators. He said that the administration should provide at least one vehicle, an alcometer and a speed radar gun in each district to check the traffic nuisance all over the State.
Notably, these instruments would help in checking traffic nuisance like over speeding, drinking and driving and other similar traffic violations.