Work on RTO shed damaged by tree-fall yet to start

Transport office claims it's awaiting PMC nod to remove tree, but civic body says permission already issued

Work on RTO shed damaged by tree-fall yet to start

Transport office claims it's awaiting PMC nod to remove tree, but civic body says permission already issued

The Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Chandrakant Kharatmal could not have been more oblivious to the goings-on in his office. The garden department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has already issued permission to the RTO to clear the tree that had fallen on its shed on Friday, but the transport chief pleaded ignorance.

Status quo: The tree that fell on the RTO shed on Friday had not been
removed even yesterday. Pic/Jignesh Mistry

The public works department (PWD) of the civic body is yet to begin work on the demolished shed of the Regional Transport Office (RTO), simply because the tree is yet to be removed. Kharatmal said the systems in the learner's licence department would start working only after the shed is repaired by the PWD.

PWD official KM Mate said the work there was a certain procedure to be followed when a tree fell. The affected party has to send a letter to the garden department, who after conducting a panchnama issues a permission to clear the fallen tree. This is to ensure that the tree was not intentionally felled by unscrupulous elements, he said.

Kharatmal said he had already sent the letter to the garden department for the requisite permission. But what he was not aware of was that the garden department had already given the go-ahead to remove the tree from RTO precincts.u00a0

Deputy Municipal Commissioner and tree officer Bhanudas Mane from the Dhole-Patil Ward Office said that the panchnama had already been conducted, and they had issued permission to the RTO to remove the tree on Monday morning around 11 pm. "Two officers from the RTO came this morning and the permission was issued," said Mane.

The PWD officials said they would not remove the tree, as their job was only to repair the shed. This too, Kharatmal was not aware of.

The RTO, meanwhile, is doing everything in its capacity to issue learner's licences to applicants, even though the complex electronic systems and wiring were destroyed when the tree fell on the shed.

Over 245 learning licenses were issued on Monday, but what the applicants were not used to was that the inspectors were asking them questions orally after examining their application forms and then sending them to the main learner's license section to get the document printed.

RTO Assistant Inspector Pravin Patil said, because of the serpentine queue of applicants, they had no option but to devise some alternative method to temporarily test applicants and then qualify them for the learner's license. "We will have to continue with this method until the shed and the wiring is repaired.

People can't be turned away so we will speed up the process and issue as many licenses as possible manually," said Patil. Alankrita Shirin (23), an applicant, said that the officers should not delay the process. "Whether they do it manually or digitally, the people shouldn't be turned away. And they should really do something to manage the queues," said Shirin.

There were no dearth of applicants at application counter. Although queues are a regular feature here, Monday was an exception as the classroom where the test is conducted can accommodate more than 30 applicants at a time. It was shut owing to the damaged computer systems.