Chandigarh: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Friday said it has unearthed a scam in Regional Transport Authority office in Sangrur and registered a case in this connection.
The case has been registered against two senior officials of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), two clerks, two middlemen and some private agents.
An official statement quoting a spokesperson of the State Vigilance Bureau said, “In this scam, involvement of RTA Sangrur, Motor Vehicle Inspector, their clerical staff and private persons has come to light who in connivance with each other used to collect bribes from various agents operating in the State for issuing fitness certificates to different types of vehicles without following prescribed rules of the state government,” the spokesperson said.
He said during the preliminary investigation conducted so far, this scam was going on since last 7-8 years and more than 2,000-2,500 vehicles were being issued fitness certificates every month and added the scam could run into crores of rupees.
He said that further investigation was under progress and the role of all officials posted in this office earlier would also be probed and strict action as per law would be initiated.
He said as per rules of transport department, all commercial vehicles have to obtain fitness certificate from the RTA office in order to ply on the roads and all such vehicles along with their documents have to be physically inspected by the MVI in his office.
Revealing the modus operandi, he added that these officials in connivance with the private agents and middlemen were blatantly issuing fitness certificates without any physical verification of vehicles in lieu of bribes ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,800 per vehicle depending on model of the vehicle.
“In this way the RTA and MVI were passing the vehicles only on the basis of documents without physical inspections of vehicles that has to be parked at a specified place for inspection on the spot,” he said.
The spokesperson further said that on the basis of complaints received in this regard, a vigilance bureau team conducted a surprise check in the office of MVI Sangrur that exposed the scam. —PTI

Press Trust of India