Bhubaneswar: The latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has flagged large-scale incorrect booking of traffic offences. The audit report was tabled in the Odisha Assembly recently.
An analysis of VAHAN, the central e-governance portal on vehicle registration, and e-challan data for 2019-24 revealed that at least 2,988 cases were booked for driving without wearing a seat belt, attracting fines totalling Rs 29.88 lakh. However, in all these cases, the vehicles were registered as two-wheelers.
Similarly, as many as 4,786 cases were booked for not wearing helmets, although the vehicles concerned were registered as three- or four-wheelers. Fines totalling Rs 47.86 lakh were imposed in these cases.
The CAG said the errors indicated a casual approach by the authorities while booking offences and a lack of validation controls in VAHAN, which allowed challans to be issued for offences that could not have been committed by drivers of the vehicles concerned.
Driving a motor vehicle without wearing a seat belt and riding a motorcycle without protective headgear attract a fine of Rs 1,000 and disqualification from holding a driving licence (DL) for three months.
The audit also found that in over 29,000 instances, the category of vehicle for which a DL was sought differed from that used for the driving test.
The audit covered five years from April 2019 to March 2024, during which 6.67 lakh DLs were issued against 9.86 lakh driving tests conducted at nine selected regional transport offices (RTOs) in the state. The CAG examined the records of nine out of the 35 RTOs in Odisha.
The analysis revealed that in 29,154 cases, the vehicles for which DLs were sought differed from those used for the driving tests. For instance, an applicant seeking a licence for a four-wheeler was tested on a two-wheeler and vice versa, the report stated.
Similarly, 318 licences were issued to 158 individuals for driving different categories of vehicles, indicating that these persons held multiple DLs due to the absence of proper validation controls on Sarathi, the government’s digital portal for driving licences, the GAG report added.
Acknowledging the CAG’s observation, the state government earlier said incorrect entries regarding the class of vehicle used for driving tests had been made by inspectors of motor vehicles while recording the test results.
This had led to discrepancies between the vehicle categories for which tests were requested and those recorded as having been conducted.
