Nearly one-third of the 2,727 posts sanctioned for the Transport Department are vacant. This has affected the department’s functioning and revenue collection.
The department, the government’s fourth largest revenue collecting agency, collected revenue of Rs. 3,924 crore in 2013–14.
The posts were sanctioned in 1990 when the population was around 4.5 crore and there were around 18 lakh vehicles.
No commensurate increaseThere has not been a commensurate increase in the staff strength when the population has crossed 6 crore and the number of vehicles has gone up to 1.3 crore, a senior official in the department said.
Balehonnur-based activist Shankaranarayana Bhat, who obtained details of vacant posts through the Right to Information Act, told The Hindu that more than 50 per cent of the posts (229 out of 420) of Inspector of Motor Vehicles (IMVs), who are the backbone of the department, were vacant, thereby severely affecting enforcement. Enforcement had come to a standstill, Mr. Bhat said.
At the same time, 20 of the 50 posts of Regional Transport Officer (RTO), who head regional transport office, and 36 of the 98 posts of Assistant RTO, who are authorised to sign documents, including driving licence, are vacant, he said.
Similarly, the department was also facing shortage of ministerial staff —clerks and stenographers.
Multiple rolesA senior official in the department said that unlike the top three revenue generating departments — Commercial Taxes, Excise, and Stamps and Registration — Transport Department officials were made part and parcel of district administration. Attending various district-level meetings, participating in election duty, etc., are some of their additional work.
IMVs have to also inspect vehicles being used by State dignitaries and accompany them during their stay in Karnataka. This has added to the woes of the overburdened officials, he said.
They also get very short time to test the skills of an applicant before authorising him/her to drive a vehicle, the official said.
