Jammu, Apr 11: The recently released report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled up the State Motor Vehicle Department in JK for failure to formulate a security policy. It states that it has detected over 3000 cases of duplicate engine and chassis numbers of vehicles registered with Regional Transport Offices (RTOs).
 "Our analysis of data base of VAHAN revealed 3032 cases of duplicate engine numbers, 17 cases of duplicate chassis numbers and 53 black engine numbers in seven test check of RTOs and ARTOs, thereby rendering the data unreliable," the CAG report reveals.  
 These cases were detected in Baramulla, Srinagar, Budgam, Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur districts of Jammu and Kashmir, it said.
 When the CAG pointed out the duplicate engine and chassis number to the State Motor Vehicle Department (SMVD) of September 2011, the department did not correct the mistakes.
 Every vehicle engine is marked with an engine number and Chassis number by the factory. The chassis and engine numbers helps in tracking the vehicle make and model.
 The chassis and engine numbers are checked by the RTA inspector at the time of registration of the vehicle and so each vehicle should have a unique alphanumeric chassis number and engine number assigned by the manufacturer, the CAG said.
 The CAG also pulled up the SMVD for failure to formulate security policy or issue any guidelines to RTOs, ARTOs for protection of hardware and software, by taking preventive measures.
 The CAG also detected that security features to prevent forging of registration certificates and driving license issued by the department were not taken by department.
 "Our analysis of database of RTO Jammu revealed that in respect of 526 registered vehicles, the user name of the data entry operator was not available in the main data base of VAHAN Software (for registration of vehicles)".
 Absence of this trail indicates that the database has been tampered with by using backend facilities as result of which the system was exposed to the risk of unauthorized access and resultant damage could not ruled out, it said adding that there also was no restriction on login attempts to prevent unauthorized access.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST