SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, March 23: It is not for nothing that there are so many rogue and polluting vehicles running on roads in Jharkhand killing a large number of people every day and adding toxic air to the environment too.
For, the junior engineers appointed to ensure irrigation and drinking water facilities have been deployed for decades in Jharkhand as motor vehicle inspectors (MVIs).
It was revealed by government counsel Rahul Saboo in the Jharkhand High Court a few days back, in a contempt petition filed by Sunil Kumar Paswan, a jobless automobile engineer.
An MVI is supposed to have a thorough understanding of various tools and how they work to ensure vehicles and other auto equipment are safe for customers to use. They often understand how the tools work, how to use them effectively and how to recognize when they’re functioning improperly.
Their role is to inspect vehicles to identify mechanical problems, such as leaks in the fuel system or worn tires; performing safety inspections on vehicles to ensure they are in safe operating condition; examining vehicle titles and registration documents to ensure that they are valid and inspecting vehicles for damage, ensuring that all equipment is installed properly, and checking for recalls.
But the government counsel informed the court of Justice S Chandrashekhar that there are about 49 sanctioned posts of the Motor Vehicle Inspectors against which only 3 persons have been regularly appointed and about 15 persons are on deputation from the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Government of Jharkhand.
Paswan’s counsel Krishna Murari stated that notwithstanding a series of orders passed by this Court the Department of Transport, Government of Jharkhand has not made appointments on regular basis rather continued to bring ineligible persons on deputation for discharging duties of the Motor Vehicle Inspectors.
Incidentally, it was the court of Justice Chandrashekhar, while hearing a petition, had directed the Jharkhand government way back in 2015 to ensure that a person who is not competent to hold the post of Motor Vehicle Inspector may not be deputed to such post. “The process of selection and appointment of Motor Vehicle Inspector may be completed, at the earliest,” the court order said.
The petition had been filed then challenging the deputation and posting of a person as Motor Vehicle Inspector, Dhanbad on the ground that he lacks essential eligibility qualification in terms of Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 and the Jharkhand Motor Vehicles Rules, 2010 and for quashing notification whereby the respondent no. 5 has been taken on deputation from PHED (now DW&S Department) to the Transport Department.
But the government adopted a dilly-dallying approach all these years in violation of the court’s 2015 order prompting Paswan to file a contempt petition now in the Jharkhand high court.
Though, the court on March 15 put on hold the decision for initiating a proceeding under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 while hearing Paswan’s petition, but directed the Secretary, Department of Transport to file a reply giving necessary time-line for (i) sending requisition to Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (ii) issuing the advertisement, and (iii) making appointments on the posts of the Motor Vehicle Inspectors within two weeks.
Notably, the post of MVI, manned by incompetent persons since creation of Jharkhand has always been lucrative jobs prompting successive political masters and bureaucrats to use them as their milch cows. These MVIs had been so powerful and cash-rich that they had even funded to topple and install a government of their choice at one point of time in Jharkhand.
