Jammu, Oct 11: Minister for Transport Qamar Ali Akhoon has underlined the need of building a clean image of the Transport department by bringing in greater accountability and transparency in its functioning.
 He told the officers, “You have to be honest in your dealings sending a right message to the lower staff as well as public thereby bringing a change in their mindset regarding the functioning of the department.”
 The Minister was chairing a high-level meeting of Transport department the other day. Secretary CA&PD and Transport K. B. Jandial, Transport Commissioner M. K. Mohanty, Deputy Transport Commissioner Bhumesh Sharma, Joint MD JKSRTC J. S. Tandon, RTO Jammu J. S. Manhas, RTO Kathua Ravi Verma,  ARTOs and other senior officers attended the meeting.
 Stressing on cutting down unnecessary delays in issuance of licences, fitness certificates and route permits, the Minister directed to take measures to stop the involvement of agents through greater accountability in the offices. It was decided that a check list of essential documents required for the issuance of license be prepared for easing the monitoring and officers were asked to make the entire process time-bound.
 Regarding regulation of city traffic, Akhoon directed to cancel the route permits of mini-buses not sticking to the time-table resulting in public inconvenience due to long gap between two consecutive passenger mini-buses. He also asked the officers to act firmly on the complaints of overloading by canceling the route permits of the defaulters, adding that a clear message should go to the public that violation of law will not be tolerated at any cost.
 Seeking the response from the public over the new scheme of easy loans for those interested in plying passenger vehicles in erstwhile Doda district, the Minister called for organizing greater number of awareness camps in the three districts of Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban so that the target of 100 private buses in a month is achieved. He also asked for preparing a proposal for setting up ARTO offices at the newly created districts. Declaration of stops for inter- state buses along Samba and Kathua routes was also discussed at the meeting.
 The Minister also emphasized on taking stringent measures to check overloading of cargo vehicles especially checking palti system at
 Lakhanpur  by taking help from the district administration.
 Earlier, the Minister held a meeting with the transporters and heard their grievances. MLC and President Transport Co. Association S. T. S. Wazir was also present in the meeting.
 During the meeting, reinforcement of passenger safety measures, replacement of worn-out and old vehicles, streamlining issuance of route permits by checking its blackmarketing, service licenses etc came up for discussion.
 Regarding overloading by cargo vehicles, the Minister directed to
 constitute mobile checking squads who would randomly check the vehicles besides a comprehensive checking at Lower Munda. He said that the government would examine the request for operationalizing the weigh bridge at Nagrota and Manwal.
 For avoiding unnecessary harassment due to repeated checking of vehicles on the Lakhanpur-Srinagar Highway, Akhoon said that a joint meeting of Traffic and Transport department would be called to work out a strategy for checking the vehicles.
 On complaints of delay in the payment by CA&PD department for the carriage of food grains, the Minister announced that payment for transportation of food grains will be made by the 10 of every month from now on. On being apprised about the shortage of vehicles for transportation of essential supplies to the far-flung and hilly districts before the onset of winters,  Akhoon directed to use private vehicles for the purpose.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 IST