Mumbai, Jun 23 (PTI) The Maharashtra government on Friday approved the upgrading of nine deputy regional transport offices to the level of RTOs, an official said.
With this, the number of RTOs in the state has increased to 24 from the existing 15 and the deputy RTOs have come down to 27 from 36, the official said.
As per a government resolution (GR), deputy RTOs in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Jalgaon, Solapur, Vasai, Ahmednagar, Chandrapur, Akola, Borivali and Satara will be upgraded to the level of RTOs.
After the government approval, Maharashtra will now have 24 RTOs and 27 deputy RTOs, including the recently created Ichalkaranji deputy RTO, which is not yet functional, he said.
The deputy RTOs at Pimpri-Chinchwad and Solapur were falling under the Pune RTO, while those at Jalgaon, Vasai, Ahmednagar, Chandrapur, Akola, Borivali and Satara came under the jurisdiction of Dhule, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur rural, Amravati, Andheri and Kolhapur RTOs, the official said.
The GR has stated that the regional transport officers of these offices have been made “office heads”.
The state government has asked the transport commissioner to appoint licence, registration and taxation officers for the jurisdiction of RTOs and deputy RTOs, it stated.
According to RTO officials, the state government’s move has come at a time when 10 RTOs and 11 deputy RTOs are without heads and posts are also vacant at the state transport commissioner’s office, where joint transport commissioner J B Patil holds three charges.
At some RTOs and deputy RTOs the posts of top bosses have been vacant for the last few months, while in some offices they have been vacant since the last few years, they said.
Some RTO officials said the upgrade was necessary only at places like Borivali and Pimpri-Chinchwad, since the ones at Akola, Satara, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon don’t have much work.
A motor vehicle inspector who did not wish to be named said the main issue was provision of staff and infrastructure rather than just upgrading it from deputy RTO to full-fledged RTO.
Some officials said Thane RTO was a prime posting due to the border check post coming under its jurisdiction, but the upgrade of Vasai in Palghar district into a full-fledged RTO would bring this post under the area of the latter.
A retired official said the upgrade, which should have happened earlier, would be more beneficial to some officials rather than the common public.
“The transport department has already launched several faceless services and more are on the anvil,” this official pointed out.
A senior bureaucrat told PTI it was necessary to upgrade some deputy RTOs considering the geographical area, vehicle registration, accident prevalence, revenue collection and enforcement requirements as well as workforce management.
“Pimpri-Chinchwad is much bigger than Nanded and Latur, but was under a deputy RTO office, whereas Nanded and Latur had full-fledged RTOs. The upgrade of RTO offices was proposed while drafting the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Department’s staffing pattern, which too has received green signal of the state government,” he said.
State Transport Secretary Parag Jain Nainutia could not be reached for comment. PTI KK ARU BNM BNM
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