Hyderabad: The border checkposts set up by Telangana Transport department have become hubs for corruption but the offending officials are easily escaping the net during the raids of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Majority of the ones arrested by the teams are private operators and unauthorised agents deputed by the concerned Motor Vehicle Inspectors.
The targets of the staff at border check-posts are transport trucks and lakhs of rupees are exchanging hands every day at these check points. Even when the truckers have legal permits and proper documents from the transport department, the RTA staff demands at least Rs 200 from them on some pretext or the other. They also harass them by making them offload their goods which have to be reloaded by deputing coolies by the truck drivers.
Mr N. Bhaskar Reddy, President of Telangana Truck Owners’ Association, said that a truck driver has to pay a total of Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 at border checkposts from Mumbai to Hyderabad for passing through Maharashtra, Karna-taka and Telangana checkposts. “ The truckers are regularly exploited at check-posts. Surprisingly, compared to South India, the checkposts in North India are far better. Except for two checkposts at Alampur and Krishna in Mahbubnagar, there is no cashless system in the other checkposts in Telangana. Only the Andhra Pradesh government is strictly implementing POS at checkposts and surprise checks are being conducted by the enforcement teams,” he said.
Mohammad Dastagiri, a driver from Tolichowki who drives a truck between Nasik-Hyderabad and Kochi-Hyderabad said that though the truckers have proper documents, they pay Rs 400 each at the bordering check-posts of Maharashtra and Karnataka RTA near Humnabad.
“TS check posts are not exempted from it. Kerala government is far better in controlling corruption at border checkposts,” he said.
After the formation of Telangana State, the ACB conducted simultaneous raids on border checkposts and seized at least Rs 75,000 of undisclosed amount from each checkpost. But, no motor vehicle inspector or staff from the RTA were arrested as the amount was seized from private persons and unauthorised agents.
Joint Transport Commissioner (Vigilance) C. Ramesh said that the wing was making surprise raids on check-posts and investigating against alleged officials based on complaints from truckers.
