Joint Transport Commissioner (Road Safety) S.A.V. Prasad Rao on Thursday said the scam involving plying of 66 BS-III vehicles as BS-IV vehicles using fake documents, seems to be bigger in size with the department unearthing another 88 vehicles operating in a similar manner.
At a press conference, Mr. Prasad Rao said all the vehicles were registered in Kohima in Nagaland and shifted to Andhra Pradesh within 2-15 days with a ‘no objection’ certificate issued by that State and were being plied here.
An enquiry with Ashok Leyland, the vehicle manufacturer, revealed that the company had sold the BS-III vehicles as scrap to the buyers. The documents available with Kohima Transport officials show the vehicles as BS IV-compliant. He said an official team that visited Kohima as part of the inquiry, was given details of six vehicles and was promised that information of the remaining vehicles would be sent to them by post. Signatures of J.C. Uma Reddy (wife of J.C. Prabhakar Reddy, who is the brother of former MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy), C. Gopal Reddy representing C. Gopal Reddy and Company and Jatadhara Industries Private Limited, based at Tadipatri in Anantapur district, have been found on the registration documents of the six said vehicles.
It may be noted that sale and registration of vehicles that did not meet BS-IV emission standards were prohibited from April 1 of 2017 and registration of the 66 vehicles in question was done between August and September months of 2018 at Kohima. The transport official said violation of this rule by a vehicle manufacturer could attract a penalty of ₹100 crore.
‘Fake insurance’
The department also booked criminal cases against 23 vehicles which were being plied in other States with fake no-objection certificates. Similarly, barring six vehicles, the insurance documents for the remaining had been faked and the insurance company concerned was enquiring into the irregularities, he said.
Twenty-three vehicles had been seized and the process to identify others was on. The department officials had written to the national-level vehicle data authorities to blacklist these vehicles.
Mr. Prasad Rao said of the newly-discovered 88 vehicles, 29 had been registered in Anantapur district in the State. The department had started investigation to see if any official or staff was involved in this irregularity and if found guilty, stringent departmental action would be initiated against them, he warned.
Another glaring violation, he said, was converting three lorries as buses, exposing the passengers to grave life threat.
Revenue rises
He said over 14,000 cases were registered against contract carriages operating in violation of the rulebook and fines to the tune of ₹4.75 lakh were collected in 2019-20.
Additional Commissioner P. Srinivas said despite tax exemption for autorickshaws, tractors and other vehicles, the department had earned a revenue of ₹3,003 crore this fiscal year till February, against ₹3,001 crore in the last financial year. He said it was expected to improve in the next few months.
