Police motor transport department put under scanner

PUNE: Dattatray Padsalgikar, the director-general of police (DGP), has appointed a high-level committee to investigate the various allegations of irregularities, including misappropriation of funds, within the police motor transport (MT) department, which is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the fleet of all police vehicles.
There are allegations of many important files never reaching the senior officers in the MT department. These files were apparently signed and executed by the subordinate staff. Senior officials have now been advised that the process of inventory purchase of the vehicle spare parts be halted and the powers be given to the local police unit heads to maintain their vehicles.

The senior officers are also accused of not responding to the Right to Information (RTI) applications. Recently, one of the officers was slapped with Rs4,200 fine by the DG’s office for non-compliance of RTI rules.

After the irregularities had surfaced at the MT department’s headquarters in Aundh, a high-level committee was formed by Padsalgikar. The committee members have been camping in Pune for the past 10 days and they are reviewing the files that were processed by the MT officials in the past three to five years.

Sunil Ramanand, the inspector general of police (Criminal Investigation Department), who is also heading the MT, acknowledged that a high-level team was reviewing all the files. The team is expected to submit a report to the DG’s office.

Ramanand has written a letter to the DG office requesting to divest the powers of purchase of vehicle spare parts and other equipment, and delegate them to concerned police unit heads. Nothing should be purchased by the MT officials, he said. It has also been advised that in the case of vehicle purchase for the police force, the MT department must only be an advisor to the DGP’s office.

Meanwhile, the senior MT officials have alleged that their subordinate officials never send important files for their perusal. Often, the files’ journey ends abruptly midway. Thus, it has been suggested that all the correspondence should be done under the vigilance of the inspector general of police, MT.

The preliminary inquiry also revealed that some of the important files, especially related to the spare parts, were retained by the subordinate officials. Why? “Nobody has the answer,” Ramanand said.

Ramanand said there were systematic efforts made by the MT officials to not part with the official information as required under the RTI Act. Recently, a senior police officer of MT was fined for Rs 4,200.

It was also revealed that few senior officers, who were posted in Vidarbha, were camping in Pune. It was an unauthorized stay. Similarly, many officers functioned from their home instead of executing their daily tasks from the office.