RTA officials top list of corrupt staff

Viskahapatnam: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) statistics reveal that transport department takes the cake in terms of officials found with disproportionate assets and caught red-handed while accepting bribes. Most of the errant employees that landed in ACB net were motor vehicle inspectors, regional transport officers and others.

Twelve officials of the transport department were arrested for possession of huge amounts of illegal assets in the past three years. Apart from the transport department revenue, housing, police, health and hospital, and local bodies services are considered to be most corrupt wings of the government.

The ACB’s Central Investigation Unit unearthed Rs 4.5 crore disproportionate assets belonging to Pasupuleti Vijaya Bhaskar, a motor vehicle inspector (MVI), in Tirupati in September this year Though the book value of the assets is Rs 4.5 crore, their market value was estimated at Rs 100 crore.  He was earlier suspended for accepting the bribe and a case was also registered against him by the ACB in February 2018 during a surprise raid on the Renigunta check-post.

Assistant motor vehicle inspector (AMVI) Saragadam Venkata Rao who was involved in corruption cases to the tune of crores of rupees and was arrested in 2003 while he was working in Srikakulam district for possessing illegal assets to a tune of Rs1.8 crore. He  was again arrested by ACB in Visakhapatnam last week for amassing over Rs 50 crore illegal assets.

Speaking to The Hans India, ACB DSP (CIU) P Ramadevi said that corruption on the roads by the Road Transport Authority (RTA) is an open secret. The drivers and truck operators tell the ACB that they paid bribes for failing to meet norms or to get things done quickly. Major reasons for paying bribes to transport department officers were getting registration and fitness certificates besides getting renewing permits and allowing overload vehicles, she added.

Most of the 12 transport department officers caught during the last 12 years registered their properties in the names of their family members and benamis, said Ramadevi.

A senior officer of the RTA, on condition of anonymity, said that the AP transport department had made nearly 80 services online to mitigate the corruption in the department. However, some officials are indulging in corruption using the MV Act.  Sometimes the drivers of heavy vehicles are forced to pay bribes on the roads to reach their destination within the stipulated time, he added.