In Haryana, body cams to ‘cleanse’ Transport Department

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 17

To weed out corruption from the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today announced a slew of measures, including appointment of dedicated District Transport Officers (DTOs) in place of the existing RTA Secretaries.

Keen on “cleansing” the Transport Department, Khattar, at a press conference, said the DTOs would be picked from among Class I officers and appointed in every district since the Secretary, RTA, was only an additional charge held by an IAS or HCS officer, who could not devote much time to the department's working.

Khattar said: "A list of 250 ‘undesirable contact men’ will be put up outside the transport offices. The entry of these middlemen will be banned."

Automated driving test tracks would be set up in 11 districts — Kaithal, Bahadurgarh, Rewari, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, Karnal, Palwal, Faridabad, Nuh, Sonipat and Bhiwani. “To keep a check on overloading of commercial vehicles, the state government has decided to employ automated portable scales on roads,” the Chief Minister said.

Body cameras will be worn by vehicle inspectors going for checking and passing of commercial vehicles.