SURAJ NANDREKAR
PANJIM: The next time you are caught by an RTO officer for any violation do not expect any sympathy or use your influence, as officers have been given targets failing which they would be penalised.
An order issued by Transport Director Nikhil Desai says that this has been done in view of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Road Safety directives.
“With an objective of enhancing the concept of safety on roads and improving enforcement of traffic rules by cracking down upon errant vehicle drivers, it has been decided to fix the monthly targets office wise for issue of checking reports,” the order states.
Further it reads, “The concerned assistant director of transport in charge shall be fully responsible to ensure that these targets are achieved without any exception. In case there is a failure in achieving these targets the concerned assistant director of transport will be held responsible and will be required to give detailed explanation justifying the failure on their part to achieve the target assigned to the respective officers.”
Speaking to Herald on condition of anonymity a motor vehicles inspector questioned the legality of the circular. “How can we unnecessarily challan citizens just to achieve the targets? We are government officers and not insurance agents,” he said.
Another officer said that to achieve the target they have to work an extra shift. “Many have fallen ill and even then they have been penalised. This is not fair,” he said.
Dy Director of Transport, Prakash Azavedo, when contacted, said that the order has been issued based on the SC monitoring committee directives. “The SC committee has certain guidelines on six violations like the red light jumping, drunk driving, over-speeding, speaking on mobile while driving, goods vehicles carrying passengers and excess carriage,” he said.
Asked about targets and penalty to officers, he said, “It has been done to get rid of lethargic approach of some officers. Some do not want to challan and get in bad books with anyone.”
On the penalty, he said, there is nothing like that and some officers have unnecessarily gone to the media “They just have to clear the backlog of the previous month including the present month’s target,” he said.
Nonetheless, with the target cut out for the officers the public, by large, would be most affected. Whether or not this move brings in road safety, only time will tell.
