Former Maharashtra transport commissioner alleges RTOs pocket Rs 1,700 crore in bribes every year

Mahesh Zagade (second from left) during a book launch event at the Mumbai Press Club on Wednesday. Pic/Abhitash Singh

Former Maharashtra transport commissioner and Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) chief Mahesh Zagade on Wednesday made an explosive claim, alleging that Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) across the state pocket an estimated Rs 1700 crore in bribes every year.

Zagade, who was at a book launch event at the Mumbai Press Club, termed the RTOs and talathis (village-level revenue officers) as "engines of corruption," even as he demanded their outright abolition, stating that modern digital infrastructure makes these physical offices obsolete.

‘Most corrupt department'

"RTOs are perhaps the most corrupt department in the government. They collect around R1700 crore in bribe money annually. I had put it on record before the government during my tenure. No officer does that, but it was necessary to show what our system is actually doing," Zagade said. He argued that with the onset of centralised digital records, citizens should no longer need to visit physical offices or plead with local officials to access basic services.

‘Why do we need it?'

"Why do we need talathis? Why do we need RTOs? These systems can easily be done away with. The government already holds complete data on citizens. Why must someone file an application and run around for a caste certificate, a license, or a passport? In a real democracy, the administration should deliver documents straight to the citizen's doorstep. Instead, artificial bottlenecks have been preserved to extract money," Zagade stated. He further pointed out that while the bureaucracy was designed to act as an institutional counterweight to political excess, it has largely failed and integrated itself into the extortion nexus.