Commotion prevailed at the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) on Wednesday when a senior clerk of the permit department was allegedly beaten up by an agent, prompting the 150 odd staff to stop their work and shut the office for the day.
The incident took place around 2 in the afternoon when the clerk Dattatrya Balwant Thorat (57) asked the agent Eknath Dhole to produce a proper list of documents for the issuance of permit.
Speaking to dna, Thorat said, “When Dhole approached me with an application for renewal of a bus permit of Penosh, a private company, I asked him to show the list of passengers. Following which, Dhole started abusing me.”
Thorat added, “I showed him the rule book of Motor Vehicle Act. However, he got irked and threw the book on my table and started pushing me. When I tried to resist his move, he hit me with his left hand and I sustained a cut on my left upper lip and cheek as well. My fellow colleagues came to my rescue and took him away from the spot.”
Thorat, who is a diabetic and has high blood pressure, felt giddy after the incident. The office staff stopped their work and told RTO Arun Yeola that they will resume the work only after Dhole is booked.
Vinod Pingale, junior clerk who went to the rescue of Thorat said, “I caught hold of Dhole and escorted him outside the room. While I was taking him to the Deputy RTO Ajit Shinde’s cabin he shrugged me and ran away.” Later, Yeola called the police and lodged an FIR against Dhole.
Yeola told dna, “The maximum work was done in the first half of the day. We have requested for additional security and I have asked my staff to get back to work from Thursday.”
Senior police inspector U N Sonawane said, “We have taken all the details and will book Dhole soon. Security at the RTO has been beefed up.”
Notorious past
This is not the first incident wherein Eknath Dhole has been booked. In a similar incident last year, Dhole had beaten up RTO inspector Jaywant Pol and was arrested by the Yerwada police.
RTO premises needs adequate security: Yeola
The Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) does not have adequate security on its premises. At present, there are only three closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras which have been installed on the ground floor at the entrance and one that covers all the counters. Moreover, there is not a single security guard to man the premises which is frequented by over 5,000 people daily.
Pune RTO Arun Yeola has already written to the State government requesting for adequate security at the office. Yeola told dna, “We have written to the state government twice in the past one year and also to the police commissioner’s office requesting them to provide us with adequate security. However, not a single corespondence has been done in this regard.”
“We are working on the proposal of installing 16 new CCTVs as we need them urgently. If we would have had adequate CCTVs, then we could have provided footage of today’s incident to the police,” he added.
A staffer who did not wish to be identified said, “Things are going from bad to worse. We will not function till we are provided with enough security.”
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