Meghalaya: RTI activist alleges vehicle act violation by Home Dept during Covid
Guwahati: RTI activist Disparsing Rani has accused the police and home department in Meghalaya of violating the Motor Vehicle Act by hiring private vehicles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rani asserts that this move was in contravention of Section 60 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, which prohibits the hiring of private vehicles by the police and only permits commercial vehicles.
Rani claimed that 156 private vehicles were requisitioned by the state government, despite the legal restrictions.
Furthermore, Rani claimed that there may have been a collusion between the private vehicle owners and the police, which facilitated this unlawful arrangement.
The allegations made were based on RTI queries, which also claimed that there was a huge outstanding payment to private vehicle owners.
An amount of Rs 10,45,78,093 remains unpaid to the owners of these vehicles, as per the information received from nine districts.
Notably, Ri Bhoi and South West Garo Hills districts failed to furnish the required information, he said.