Transport department ranks third in state: minister

A meeting of Regional Transport Officers of the State was held under the chairmanship of Shri Kishan Kapoor, Transport Minister here today. The meeting was organized to review the revenue generation targets fixed for financial year 2008-09 as well as the achievements of the previous financial year.

Shri Kapoor, addressing the first meeting organized by State Transport Department, called upon all the RTOs to make sincere efforts for achieving the targets fixed for them in a time bound manner. He congratulated the officers of the Department for achieving third position in the State for generating revenue for state exchequer. He said that there are still scope for increasing the revenue collection by State Transport Authority. He said that the Department has prepared a comprehensive note for the first time which would facilitate the officials making the targets clear for them besides removing shortcomings in their functioning.

The Minister categorically said that those private bus operators paying their tax liabilities in time would be awarded by the Department whereas the defaulters would invite stringent action against them. He directed the officers to initiate serious action against such defaulters by issuing notices to them within ten days having tax liabilities for more than Rs. one lac due for payment to the Government so that the targets could be achieved. Informations regarding tax recoveries should also be communicated to Directorate, Transport regularly, he added.

Shri Kapoor also directed the RTOs to ensure ticket distribution to commuters in private buses as well as charging of bus fares fixed by the Government, besides, conducting surprise inspections of private buses and Driving Training Schools to ensure high quality training in them.

Shri Rajender Singh, Director Transport welcomed the Minister and spoke at length about the targets fixed for financial year 2008-09. He said that targets for revenue collection by the department had been fixed at Rs. 136 crore and 50 lacs. He said that a sum of Rs. 217.81 lacs have been collected as Special Road Tax in April,2008 adding that as many as 830 vehicles were challened by RTOs and Rs. 13.21 lacs recovered.

Shri Amit Kashyap, Secretary, State Transport Authority also spoke on the occasion and detailed out on-going activities of the Authority.