Chandigarh, October 17 - After tightening the noose around those involved in corrupt practices in Tehsil offices by successfully implementing e-registration in Tehsils, Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal today announced that new District Transport Officers (DTOs), in place of RTA Secretaries will be appointed in every district so as to ensure that Regional Transport Authority (RTA), which is said to be a corruption hub too works in a transparent and corruption free manner.

The Chief Minister was addressing a press conference at Haryana Niwas here today. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Manohar Lal said that on the auspicious occasion of Navaratri festival starting from today, he had pledged to eradicate corruption in every government department after ensuring implementation of Zero tolerance against corruption in RTAs.

Mr. Manohar Lal said that this is the second initiative of the State government as per which separate DTOs will be appointed in the RTA offices. Earlier HCS officers were appointed as the Chief Executive Officers of Zila Parishad. He said that the DTOs will be appointed within the next two days and now all 22 districts in the State will have DTOs instead of Regional Transport Authority Secretaries (RTAs).

The Chief Minister said that after ensuring the elimination of the role of 'Undesirable Contact Men’ in Tehsil offices, now the general public will also get rid of the problem of middlemen in RTA offices, be it for making driving licenses or getting vehicle passed. Furthermore, after Rohtak, six more Inspection and Certification Centres to inspect and check fitness of vehicles will be opened at six more districts including Ambala, Karnal, Hisar, Gurugram, Faridabad and Rewari said, Mr. Manohar Lal.

He further informed that automated driving test tracks will be set up in 11 districts namely Kaithal, Bahadurgarh, Rohtak, Faridabad, Nuh, Bhiwani, Karnal, Rewari, Sonipat, Palwal, and Yamunanagar, where driving skills will be tested and the entire test process will be computerized. As a result of this people will not have to approach any middlemen for getting their licenses made. He said that a provision of Rs 30 crore has been made for this and these centres will be opened within a period of one year.

Similarly, to keep a vigil on overloading of commercial vehicles, which is also a major reason behind corrupt practices, the state government has decided that portable scales will be installed on the roads and even the drivers will not get to know when the weight of their vehicles has been measured. He said that 45 such portable scales have been bought by the State Government and after the success of this experiment, more such portable scales will be installed in the entire state, shared the Chief Minister. He further said that body cameras will be worn by vehicle inspector going for checking and passing of commercial vehicles, so as to ensure that recording of the entire checking process is done and its monitoring will be done at headquarters.

The Chief Minister said that the problem of overloading is usually found in mining vehicles, therefore the 'e-RAVANA' software has already been prepared by the Mining Department but now this software will be integrated with the 'VAHAN' software of the Transport Department.

Mr Manohar Lal also informed that at present the number of registered commercial vehicles in RTA office is around 1.25 lakh and the number of employees in the RTA offices is only 627. More recruitment will be done within a period of one year for smooth functioning of these offices.

The Chief Minister said that the Deputy Commissioners will also be made aware of this decision of the state government. He said that it is not necessary that the DTO officer will be of IAS or HCS rank, but for this, any class-I officer or an IPS or HPS officer or any officer on deputation can be appointed as DTO. The main aim behind all this is to curb corruption.

The Chief Minister also indicated that after RTA, he will select some other departments as well where there is a high probability of corruption and action on checking such corruption will be taken soon.

Transport Minister, Mr. Mool Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary, Transport Department Mr. Anurag Rastogi, and Director General, Information, Public Relations, and Languages Department, Mr. P.C. Meena and other officers were also present on this occasion.