Touts hold Mumbai RTOs to ransom, rough up mid-day photographer

Corruption it seems is the least of the statersquos worries as far as the illegal agents in the cityrsquos RTOs are concerned In a bid to show their clout on the first day they were kept out of transport offices following strict orders from State Transport Commissioner Mahesh Zagade the agents not only ground work to a near halt at the Andheri and Tardeo RTOs they also manhandled a midday photographer capturing their protest and slapped an army manOn Sunday midday had reported lsquoTransport chief shows touts the doorrsquo on RTO officials clearing the agentsrsquo desks outside the buildings after Zagade had threatened to take strict action against them beginning yesterday if any tout was found at any of the 47 RTOs across Maharashtra Sensing a threat to their illegal source of livelihood the agents made life difficult for the common man and the auto and taxi drivers who had gone to the RTOs to get things done yesterdayAndheriLensman threatenedAt the toutinfested Andheri RTO agents held loud protests on the road outside the building where their umbrellashaded desks used to be To prevent touts from entering the RTO authorities had placed several security guards at the entrance and were allowing only one person to enter at a time by keeping the iron grills shutWork got delayed and crowds of applicants swelled inside the RTO because of the agentsrsquo protests PicNimesh DaveAs an added measure they also started taking down details of those entering the premises and the purpose of their visit in a logbook midday photographer Nimesh Dave who reached the Andheri RTO around 1215pm saw a bunch of agents standing outside the RTO premises and heard them curse the authorities for preventing them from entering the premisesWhen he took out his camera a group of the agents approached him and began shouting and abusing him ldquoThey asked me to keep my camera inside my backpack claiming that an English daily had misrepresented some facts and blamed themrdquo said Dave The situation began to get heated and some of the illegal agents asked him to leave the place immediatelyThe photographer asked the agents to calm down but they continued to hurl abuses and threatened to damage his camera and lens The group also pushed him and pulled at his bag When Dave finally started his bike to leave the premises a few of the agents began kicking the bike from behind and another altercation broke out Dave managed to leave the RTO around 130 pmThe Andheri RTO is known to be a haven for touts who have a large presence there Agents from around 100 driving schools and several car dealers that cover the western suburbs all the way to Dahisar carry out their business there Sources from the RTO said they did not have enough staff members to control these unruly elementsTardeoArmy man slappedUnlike other days the RTO here remained nearly deserted with groups of illegal agents standing outside the premises A few of them even roamed about telling people that work was not being carried out at the RTO Around 230 pm however things began to get really uglyR Yadav in white the army man with his mother at the Tardeo RTOA female permit holder of a blackandyellow taxi was standing near the RTO with her two sons and their Premier Padmini taxi to send it for scrapping As per the rules the old vehicle has to be taken to an RTO first where documentation is done and parts of the taxi are broken off before the owners sell the vehicle off to a scrap yard or do whatever else they want with itThe removal of the taxirsquos parts including portions of the bonnet the boot cover and the sides is usually done by welders at the RTOs who are linked to touts and give them kickbacks However with work at a standstill one of the permit ownersrsquo sons R Yadav began breaking them off himself using a hammer and chiselAngered by this assault on their income a handful of agents went up to Yadav and in a threatening tone asked him to stop breaking off parts of his own taxi They began asking him for documents to prove that he was the permit owner of the cab and also asked for identity proofs of his brother and motherWhen the Yadavs protested stating that they had already taken permission from the authorities to break parts of the vehicle as the other formalities for scrapping it had been completed This is when one of the agents slapped R Yadav and threatened him and an RTO officer came running to the spotldquoWhen we are not working how can he break the taxi He too might be an agentrdquo one of the illegal agents told the RTO officer When the officer checked the Yadavsrsquo identity cards he realised that the brother who was slapped was an army manThis prompted the RTO officials to silence the agents and tell them that the two sons had every right to scrap the taxi as their mother was the permit holder The officers then monitored the process while the agents grumbled A group of people representing a car dealer who had come to get vehicles registered were also threatened by touts