09 November,2011 08:34 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
Official Site still says Chandrakant Kharatmal is regional transport officer in spite of Arun Yevla having replaced him four months ago; Even autorickshaw tariff for city not updated, finds citizen activist.
The Regional Transport Office (RTO), Pune, has been blamed quite a few times for not updating information on its website www.rtopune.info and misinforming citizens in the process. But the height of its incompetence was revealed when Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe (55), an engineer who is also an RTI activist, accessed the RTO website to download the revised autorickshaw tariff and found the site had not been updated for the past four years.
Chandrakant Kharatmal is shown as the regional transport officer on
the RTO website despite Arun Yevla having replaced him four months ago
The site still shows Chandrakant Kharatmal as the regional transport officer, even though Arun Yevla took over the post four months ago. Sahastrabuddhe said even the autorickshaw tariff had not been updated on the site.
"No changes have been made (on the site) in the tariff rate, which starts at Rs 11. In the new tariff card, Re 1 is added after each kilometre," said Sahastrabuddhe. "People coming to the city might be misled by such incomplete information."
Vishwas Sahastrabuddhe, an engineer and RTI activist who discovered
u00a0the flaws on the website
The activist raised this issue while registering a complaint in the RTO near Sangam Bridge yesterday. Sahastrabuddhe also said many of the columns in the statistics page were entirely blank while the email address ufffd rtopune@dataone.in ufffd provided to communicate with RTO officials was incorrect as the mails sent to this address bounced back.
The Regional Transport Office, Pune, near Sangam Bridge. Pics/Krunal
Gosavi and Vivek Sabnis
Kamlesh Pathak, a businessman from Vidarbha who visits the city every two months, also said he had to bear the brunt of RTO's indolence. He said he had to pay more than the stipulated fare to rickshaw drivers who showed him duplicate tariff cards. "I pointed it out to Gad Singh, assistant regional transport officer, but did not receive any satisfactory reply from him," said Pathak.
Regional Transport Officer Yevla admitted the existing website needed to be upgraded. "We will do it soon and will also link it with the website of the state transport department," he said. Sanjay Dhaigude, deputy regional transport officer, said the site would be upgraded in eight days.u00a0 To communicate with RTO officials, mails should be sent to mh12@mahatranscom.in.
