TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The annual revenue contribution to the state’s kitty by the Margao RTO, Enforcement, alone works out to a whopping Rs 75 lakh.
Add to this the revenue generated by the RTO registration office and the Margao office forms an important component of revenue generation for the transport department. Sadly, however, the Margao transport office has no independent office of its own till date, nor a secured space for parking of vehicles detained for violating MV rules.
That’s not all. Both the registration and enforcement wings are operating from two different buildings for want of space. While the enforcement wing continues to function from rented premises of the marketing federation building at Arlem, the registration wing is housed in the SGPDA building, barely sufficient to meet the requirements.
This situation assumes significance in view of the fact that the transport department owns sizeable land at the Margao KTC bus stand. Transport Director Arun Desai, however, told Herald that the department has planned a spacious office for the RTO in the proposed ultra-modern transportation plaza at Margao. He, however, admitted that the transportation plaza proposal mooted by the Digambar Kamat government has not made much headway in the last two years.
That the question of RTO facing space crunch came to the fore as vehicles detained for violating MV rules are being towed from the city to the Cuncolim police station for their safety and security. “We are helpless. The RTO has no space of its own to park the detained vehicles. Left with no option, our officers take the detained vehicles to the Cuncolim PS”, remarked Assistant RTO officer, Sandeep Desai.
Transport director Arun Desai reminded that the MV Act mandates the RTO to keep the detained vehicles at the police station. “We cannot park the vehicles at the Margao police station. Hence, the option left to us is to take the detained vehicles to Verna police station or Cuncolim”, he said.
That the RTO is facing space problem has also come to the fore with the officers conducting the annual fitness certificate test and vehicle inspection right on the roads – either on the eastern bypass or the road heading to the Margao railway station from Navelim Church.
Both the registration and enforcement wings are operating from two different buildings for want
of space
