Mumbai: Amidst raging debate over road safety in the wake of burgeoning accidents, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) has expressed strong displeasure over the lack of action taken against 2,68,633 overloaded vehicles (73 per cent) by the state transport department across Maharashtra during the BJP-led government between 2014-15 and 2017-18. Of the 3,67,641 overloaded vehicles detected at border check posts, action was only taken against 99,408 vehicles.
CAG has rapped the state transport department for its lethargy, saying that these vehicles were allowed to ply in contravention to the Motor Vehicle Act, thereby endangering road and public safety.
CAG also found that vehicles take alternative routes because of the absence of weighing mechanisms and mobile check posts at some locations. The government has foregone the revenue of Rs 81 crore due to non-levy of penalty and compounding fees.
"A data centre and IT infrastructure was maintained by Maharashtra Border Check Posts Network Ltd (MBCPNL) for online checking, verification and detection of the overloaded vehicles.
However, there was no mechanism for sharing the same with the transport department, which maintains the record of border check posts manually,’’ CAG said in its report for the year (which ended on March 31) tabled last week in the state legislature. In case of manual checking over overloaded vehicles, the CAG has said that the possibility of leakage of revenue could not be ruled out.
CAG expressed concern over the huge difference in the number of vehicles carrying goods and services beyond the permissible gross laden weight furnished by the transport department and MBCPNL (through the transport commissioner).
"No system for the reconciliation of figures and monitoring mechanism existed for ensuring the correctness of data maintained either by the transport department or by the MBCPNL.
Thus, the compounding fees/fines was not recovered for 73 per cent of the overloaded vehicles carrying goods beyond the permissible limit of the gross laden weight,’’ CAG said in the report.
CAG has recommended that the transport department may consider monitoring the levy and the collection of fines from the overloaded vehicles by sharing and reconciling the data with MBCPNL at regular intervals.
Further, CAG has asked the transport department for an early operation of the check posts and to ensure availability of the tools necessary for weighing and detecting the vehicles carrying load above the permissible limit.
