UNDER-QUALIFIED BUS, AUTO DRIVERS
DVAC unearths ₹10cr badge scam at Madurai RTO
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 27.06.2018
Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has uncovered a scam in Madurai in which top transport officials colluded with private driving schools and schools under National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to issue badges to thousands of under-qualified drivers.
Badges are issued by Regional Transport Offices (RTO) to those driving a public service vehicle like bus, auto and taxi. Persons should have six months driving experience in LMVs and two years in HMV and should have cleared Class VIII.
The DVAC is also investigating if officials minted at least ₹10 crore in the process by taking bribes of ₹15,000- ₹20,000 per badge from more than 6,000 applicants. The agency on Monday booked 17 people including K Kalyankumar, Regional Transport Officer; K Manikandan, principals of three NIOS schools, and 10 owners of private driving schools for forgery and corruption.
The agency said the six RTO officials in-charge of issuing the ‘badges’ did so based on forged Class VIII pass certificates issued by Raghavendra Vidyalaya, Sri Ram Vidyalaya and Periyanatchi Vidyalaya schools. Though the schools were registered under NIOS, they were not run as per norms, the DVAC said.
The school transfer certificates and marksheets, which should be issued by NIOS, were prepared by Manikandan who issued or sold them to people referred by RTO officers and driving school owners, the DVAC said.
RTO officials, instead of sending verified documents to the concerned jurisdictional police officers by post for approval, would ask the applicants to get it done themselves. Driving school owners were booked for using the forged certificates to process the issuance of badges to at least 730 applicants in 2015 and 2016, the DVAC said.
Mani and Viji, Om Iyappa, Jeyalakshmi, Chendur, Selvi, Nirmala, Ganga Devi, Anbu, Theetchana and Meena driving schools were named in the FIR.
DVAC unearths ₹10cr badge scam at Madurai RTO
Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com
Chennai: 27.06.2018
Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has uncovered a scam in Madurai in which top transport officials colluded with private driving schools and schools under National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to issue badges to thousands of under-qualified drivers.
Badges are issued by Regional Transport Offices (RTO) to those driving a public service vehicle like bus, auto and taxi. Persons should have six months driving experience in LMVs and two years in HMV and should have cleared Class VIII.
The DVAC is also investigating if officials minted at least ₹10 crore in the process by taking bribes of ₹15,000- ₹20,000 per badge from more than 6,000 applicants. The agency on Monday booked 17 people including K Kalyankumar, Regional Transport Officer; K Manikandan, principals of three NIOS schools, and 10 owners of private driving schools for forgery and corruption.
The agency said the six RTO officials in-charge of issuing the ‘badges’ did so based on forged Class VIII pass certificates issued by Raghavendra Vidyalaya, Sri Ram Vidyalaya and Periyanatchi Vidyalaya schools. Though the schools were registered under NIOS, they were not run as per norms, the DVAC said.
The school transfer certificates and marksheets, which should be issued by NIOS, were prepared by Manikandan who issued or sold them to people referred by RTO officers and driving school owners, the DVAC said.
RTO officials, instead of sending verified documents to the concerned jurisdictional police officers by post for approval, would ask the applicants to get it done themselves. Driving school owners were booked for using the forged certificates to process the issuance of badges to at least 730 applicants in 2015 and 2016, the DVAC said.
Mani and Viji, Om Iyappa, Jeyalakshmi, Chendur, Selvi, Nirmala, Ganga Devi, Anbu, Theetchana and Meena driving schools were named in the FIR.
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