-------How 700 commuters died in road accidents in Doda--------

Records of 50,000 driving licenses ‘missing’

Accused ARTO inducted into KAS; SVO conducting half-hearted probe

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Mar 13: Records of almost all the 50,000 driving licenses, issued by an Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) in Doda-Udhampur from January 2001 to March 2003, are completely missing in the state Transport Department. While as no departmental inquiry has been conducted by successive governments and the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) has now begun a half-hearted investigation, the well-connected ARTO has been not only inducted into the prestigious Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) but also retained on a coveted position in the Transport Department.

Well-placed sources in the state Transport Department revealed to Early Times that official records of almost all the 50,000 driving licenses, issued by one particular ARTO in Doda-Udhampur from 31-01-2001 to 25-03-2003 were “completely missing”. Even as the matter was well in the knowledge of all high ups from Transport Commissioners to Commissioner-Secretaries of Transport and successive Ministers incharge Transport, no departmental inquiry was ever conducted in the last seven years. According to sources, most of these driving licenses, private as well as commercial, had been issued against cash payment of bribes and without completion of codal formalities.

Like in several other districts of the state, rate of Rs 2,000 to 4,000 had been fixed for issuance of each light motor vehicle license. Officials, directly as well as through touts, openly charged Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 for heavy and hill driving licenses in the lucrative commercial category in Doda and Udhampur. The bribe money, running into Crores of Rupees, was shared between officials from top to bottom in full knowledge of the department as well as the applicants. Then ARTO Udhampur, who also held the additional charge of ARTO Doda, is believed to have issued 20,000 driving licenses in Udhampur district and 30,000 more in Doda in just two years of his tenure.

With all complaints falling on deaf ears of the authorities, SVO finally launched a half-hearted ‘preliminary inquiry’ vide No: SVO-Veri-UD-47/2010-148569 late last year. Incumbent ARTO Doda-Kitshwar, Bipan Singh Charak, wrote to the Inquiry Officer (IO) on 20-12-2010 that the records of almost all the 30,000 driving licenses in question were “missing”. He made it clear to the SVO that photocopies of just 1,930 licenses, issued from 3-10-2001 to 4-10-2002, were available in his office but original records of these too were “untraced”.

Apparently well versed in the art of keeping his personal records clear, the 2003 ARTO has been found to have informed Police Station Doda, through a subordinate clerk, that the official records of all the driving licenses issued during two years of his tenure, had “disappeared in mysterious circumstances” during transportation from Udhampur to Doda. Police made necessary entry in its Daily Diary but did not conduct any investigation.

By virtue of his high connections in bureaucracy as well politics, the accused ARTO has risen from his initial appointment as Junior Assistant in Motor Vehicle Department to a coveted position in the state Transport Department in less than 18 years. Sources said that the ARTO’s father, who also remained posted as RTO Jammu, also faced SVO investigations but managed to get clean chit from top judicial courts from J&K to New Delhi.

In the year 2006-07, SVO launched an investigation into the assets of the ARTO, allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income, and conducted a series of raids on his hotels and Education Colleges in Jammu, Katra and Patni Top. While the investigation was nearing completion and all necessary evidences had been collected, entire records disappeared mysteriously in the custody of IO, Inspector Nisar Hussain Shah. While the accused ARTO escaped free, Commissioner of Vigilance Dr Ashok Bhan ordered suspension of the IO besides a departmental inquiry against him.

The ARTO’s godfathers in then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s government managed to send the investigation against the IO in the matter of “destroying evidences with criminal intention” to the CBI. Vigilance Organisation Jammu finally closed the matter as “not admitted” and buried the investigation. CBI later returned the matter with the remarks that no “criminal intention” was evident in the act of “destroying the evidences”.

Even previously, when Transport Commissioner M K Mohanty shifted this well-connected official from the posting of Chief Inspector Board of Inspections and also relieved him of the additional charge of ARTO Udhampur, Commissioner-Secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Ganai lost no time to teach the top-ranking Police officer a lesson of his life. Within a day, the official’s dignity was restored and the Transport Commissioner was snubbed with the remarks that he had no authority to touch officials above the rank of Inspector. For several years, this official became famous for his connections to then Minister incharge Transport Ajat Shatru Singh.

With the number of drivers and commuters killed in scores of road accidents in Doda-Kishtwar spiraling upto 703 in the last few years---and all inquiries being hushed up in broad daylight---Government of Jammu & Kashmir inducted the junior assistant-turned-ARTO into the prestigious KAS. As the “indispensable” insisted to continue in Transport Department, he was not only posted against a coveted position but also given the department’s “most lucrative” charge of Member-Secretary State Transport Authority. Sometime back, he was made to clear the slot for a former Chief Secretary’s son.

Refusing to reconcile, he hired the services of a national television news channel’s cameraman and got a number of his rivals trapped on his spy camera. Knowledgeable sources insist that only one ARTO’s video clip was used to spread terror through Assembly and all others, captured in action, were being blackmailed. They include RTO Jammu, Virender Salathia, who has been pitiably appointed by Minister of Transport as head of the inquiry into charges of corruption against the suspended ARTO of Doda!

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