On the road to checking crimes
22 Jan 2013 10:23 PM GMT
While some frauds are fairly easy to spot, others aren’t. Investigations into the recent incident of gang rape of a 23-year-old para-medical student in South Delhi, has revealed that the private bus in which the crime was committed was registered under a fictitious address and during investigations the local police faced a great deal of difficulty in arresting the bus owner, as the address given during the registration of the vehicle was found to be fake.
Flouting norms have become routine in India and the transport ministry should seriously be taken to task for permitting such criminal lapses. The incident has revealed how years of neglect by the transport department has left a gaping hole in the way private operators flout all rules while running their fleet in the capital. During the course of investigation, it has also been found that Dinesh Yadav, 35, owner of the errant bus had been running nine buses illegally on DTC routes after registering the vehicles against a fake north Delhi address. No action was taken even after the DTC had repeatedly told the transport department about the it. This incident has once again brought to light the chaotic functioning of the system, with specific reference to the licencing departments. Nobody is ready to examine the prevailing loopholes. Instead of ‘trying’ to hunt for a full-proof solution, the authorities are found to be passing the buck to each other. While the traffic police blamed the Delhi government for not being able to implement proper laws resulting in the courts letting off the bus, the Delhi administration officials blamed it on the ‘inefficient handling of the charge sheet’ by the police.
We as a nation might pride ourselves on our ability to smell a fraud a mile off, but offenders aren’t fools and are always alert to make the most of any legal loopholes. The present form of fraud is a case in point on the number of similar frauds that are committed daily under the governments’ nose. What is the need of the hour? One, punitive action must be immediately initiated against applicants presenting fake documents for registration of vehicles. Two, a database of offending vehicles should be created and drivers found flouting norms should be hauled up on the spot. This would entail registration numbers of cars being scanned at traffic signals and run through the database by a computer. A smart phone application, in today’s tech savvy world, should suffice to enable this for any traffic policeman on the beat! And of course, its time we get rid of the blame game. The energy so used, definitely deserves to be put to better use.
Flouting norms have become routine in India and the transport ministry should seriously be taken to task for permitting such criminal lapses. The incident has revealed how years of neglect by the transport department has left a gaping hole in the way private operators flout all rules while running their fleet in the capital. During the course of investigation, it has also been found that Dinesh Yadav, 35, owner of the errant bus had been running nine buses illegally on DTC routes after registering the vehicles against a fake north Delhi address. No action was taken even after the DTC had repeatedly told the transport department about the it. This incident has once again brought to light the chaotic functioning of the system, with specific reference to the licencing departments. Nobody is ready to examine the prevailing loopholes. Instead of ‘trying’ to hunt for a full-proof solution, the authorities are found to be passing the buck to each other. While the traffic police blamed the Delhi government for not being able to implement proper laws resulting in the courts letting off the bus, the Delhi administration officials blamed it on the ‘inefficient handling of the charge sheet’ by the police.
We as a nation might pride ourselves on our ability to smell a fraud a mile off, but offenders aren’t fools and are always alert to make the most of any legal loopholes. The present form of fraud is a case in point on the number of similar frauds that are committed daily under the governments’ nose. What is the need of the hour? One, punitive action must be immediately initiated against applicants presenting fake documents for registration of vehicles. Two, a database of offending vehicles should be created and drivers found flouting norms should be hauled up on the spot. This would entail registration numbers of cars being scanned at traffic signals and run through the database by a computer. A smart phone application, in today’s tech savvy world, should suffice to enable this for any traffic policeman on the beat! And of course, its time we get rid of the blame game. The energy so used, definitely deserves to be put to better use.
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