Mantri’s power plan burden for transport dept?

NEW DELHI: There have been complaints galore about the functioning of autorickshaws and private buses, yet transport minister Saurabh Bhardwaj thinks it's the auto drivers that are a harassed lot. On Wednesday, he justified the government's decision to take away traffic police's prosecution powers by saying that these are misused to harass auto drivers. These powers will be given to the transport department instead.But the fundamental question that now arises is this: is the department really capable of handling this additional responsibility? Also, the aam aadmi might wonder if this move is a quid pro quo act by the AAP-led government for the support autorickshaw unions gave during elections.
Department insiders say that with just 100-odd people they don't have adequate staff to monitor the over one lakh autorickshaws and 8,000-odd private buses. Last year, the transport department issued 17,792 challans based on complaints of commuters. At the same time, the enforcement wing of the department issued 48,509 challans. Sources say that it's possible that many violations went unnoticed due to skeletal staff.
But Bhardwaj is not convinced. Calling for a more "balanced" approach to enforcement, Bhardwaj said there was "merit" to both sides. "We also need to look into the allegations of harassment by autorickshaw drivers," said the minister.
Incidentally, prosecution powers were given to traffic police many years ago after transport department complained of a manpower crunch. That crunch continues.