Pune: The recent Kalyaninagar accident has uncovered a concerning trend of unregistered vehicles being driven on city roads. In response, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) conducted an investigation and found numerous unregistered vehicles.

However, the RTO's action of merely suspending the business licenses of dealers for 10 days has sparked criticism and raised questions about the effectiveness of this measure.

From May 22 to June 1, the RTO carried out an inspection campaign during which 11 unregistered vehicles were discovered. Show-cause notices were issued to the 11 dealers responsible for handing over unregistered vehicles to customers.

Among these, six were within the Pune RTO jurisdiction, three in Satara, and one each in Akluj and Shrirampur sub-regional transport offices. Relevant RTOs were notified about dealers outside Pune. The Pune RTO suspended the business licenses of six dealers from July 8 to 17 for just 10 days.

According to regulations, dealers must register vehicles before delivering them to customers. The investigation revealed that distributors were violating this rule.

The RTO has the authority to cancel business certificates for up to six months for such violations. However, in this case, the suspension period was limited to just 10 days for the offending dealers in Pune.

Discrepancies in Enforcement

The RTO maintains that dealers cannot conduct vehicle sales or other business activities during the suspension period.

Contrarily, the affected dealers claim that while the RTO did not process vehicle registrations during the suspension, their other business activities were not impacted. This discrepancy has raised questions about the true extent of the action taken.