It is rotten to the core. From peons to clerks to Assistant Directors to Assistant Motor Vehicle inspectors, the transport department appears to be a gallery of rogue officials who charge for any work that needs to be done. This “charge” goes from the peon up the ladder to the “very top”. With the Assistant Director of the department arrested along with others down the line, the corruption spotlight is well and truly on the transport department, even as the gaze has been sharply focused on the PWD department ever since the Louis Berger scam exploded as the biggest bomb on the surface of corruption in Goa.
For years, the transport department has actually “worked” under the shadow of departments like the PWD, power and health, with the PWD maintaining the top of the charts position in the graft blacklist.
The total number of transport and non transport vehicles across all the Regional Transport offices is 67,054 and 455,280 respectively. Not surprisingly, Ponda, the backyard of Transport Minister Sudin Dhavlikar has the highest number of transport vehicle registrations and leads in the overall vehicle registrations. This is the source of corruption and has now become a major bone of contention between the BJP and the MGP. Datta Prasad Naik who contested the Taleigao Assembly Elections and has his roots in Ponda taluka told Herald, “Corruption in the PWD has reached unimaginable levels. So many of our party workers have come to me and gone to other leaders secluding MLA’s saying that even renewals of transport permits do not happen unless money is paid. And it starts right from the bottom.”
He said that bus, truck and tanker operators have been really hit since their business depends on regular renewals and updated permits.
While these may have been counted as politically motivated charges, the spate of arrests in the department (see accompanying story) has given credence to these allegations. At the same time Sudin Dhavlikar, who has held sway over the PWD department, has governed the Transport department for almost the entire time that he has been a minister across both political dispensations. And Arun Dessai has been the Transport director for pretty much the entire tenure of Dhavlikar as minister.
The contours of this alleged corruption need to be understood. The department is milked by recruiting boys and men from Ponda either as external recruits, as peons and staff of the minister or through regular recruitment. With a workforce consisting of hardcore loyalists, the department then went about fleecing those who needed the tutelage of the transport department to conduct their business. This really was the anatomy of the scam.
The just removed Transport director –who the state government has plans to elevate to the elite Indian Administrative Services- has been a fulcrum around which the department has functioned. He has been close to several power centres from 2000 onwards when he was Secretary to Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar. The fact that it finally took a note from the Anti Corruption Bureau probing into several instances of corruption in the ACB, to move him from the department after five years, is evidence of the political clout Dessai had.
BJP’s Datta Prasad Naik, reacting to Dessai’s transfer said, “This transfer of the Arun Dessai has definitely come as a relief to taxi, bus and highway operators but if the leader is still out there, the worry is still around. It is well known that the PWD and transport departments are the ones that are steeped in corruption. And they are the departments where many officials are being caught red handed when it comes to corruption and accepting bribes.”
Activist Kashinath Shetye who filed a complaint with the state vigilance department on the scams of the transport department said, “Back in 2010, we had filed a complaint with the vigilance on a case involving Arun Dessai having taken Rs 75 lakh for a drama he was a part of. We had complained but the vigilance did no inquiry and didn’t take any action against him. It is a well known fact that he is also involved in the illegal mining in the state but has not received an inquiry. The transport department is known for corruption,” he told Herald.
Notwithstanding this shake up, no one in political and bureaucratic circles is expecting a massive turnaround since the rot in the transport department is not outside the universe of corruption in which this government swims. If at all, the PWD department officially has more company.
