The rape of woman at Swargate depot of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has brought to the fore the concerning fact that the transporter, among the largest in the country, does not have a Chief Security and Vigilance Officer (CSVO) for almost three years.
The 26-year-old woman was raped allegedly by man with criminal record, Dattatray Ramdas Gade (37) early morning on Tuesday inside an ST bus. Thirteen teams have been formed by police to track down Gade.
After the retirement of CVSO MK Bhosale, a DIG rank officer, on June 30, 2022, the post was transferred to the Pimpri Chinchwad commissionerate as joint commissioner.
"The post, which was of IG rank, was downgraded to that of DIG for Bhosale. Since his retirement almost three years ago, the CVSO post in MSRTC is vacant. The post of Chief Security Officer was prevalent since 1949, before the nomenclature was changed to Chief Security and Vigilance Officer," an official told PTI.
MSRTC has 252 bus depots across the 36 districts of the state, which consists of 31 divisions with 36 workshops, the official said.
The security of those assets is with 2700 security guards, who are appointed by Security Guards Board and Maharashtra Ex-Servicemen Corporation Limited (MESCO), he said, adding that among those around 150 security guards are of MSRTC.
MSRTC has more than 15,000 buses in its fleet, down from the earlier 18,500. There were no purchases of new buses for the last five years, but now 2500 new buses have been procured, of which 300 have been introduced in the fleet, he said.
The post used to be manned by senior Indian Police Service officers at one point of time considering its importance, he said.
"The post was earlier headed by IPS officers like Arvind Inamdar, Bhujangrao Mohite, Ajit Parasnis, Sridevi Goyal, Raja Mangaonkar, and others. But now the additional charge of the post is with Nandkumar Kolarkar, who is General Manager of Mechanical Engineering," the official said.
Incidentally, Kolarkar also has additional charge as General Manager (Stores and Purchases), the official said underlining the way the important post of CVSO has fared at the public transporter.
The Mechanical Engineering department looks into purchases of buses, specifications and designs, while the Stores department looks into the procurement of equipment and other related operations, he said.
"One officer is handling three posts simultaneously. Considering the massive security and vigilance-related work at MSRTC, the post must have an officer of IG rank," the official asserted.
The question is whether security at MSRTC is important or not, former IAS officer Mahesh Zagade said on the bureaucratic blind spot the issue has found itself in.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
