ONE MAN’S ‘STRUGGLE’ TO ‘UNCLOG’ JAIPUR’S TRANSPORT ‘CONGESTIONS’!

Jaipur: Senior IAS Sandeep Verma has been under ‘limelight’ because of his aggressive way of working and his habit of sticking to the rule book. Lackadaisical attitude towards work and circumventing of rules does not go down well with him. In latest example, he has found several loopholes in JDA’s working and shown mirror to several officers. On September 14, the Traffic Control Board met at JDA and Verma too was a participant in the meeting. The very next day, he wrote a two page letter to member-secretary citing the loophopes and gaps in the manner the meeting was conducted and the content and language of the letter is extremely serious. The letter, which went public, takes on the JDA officials for not circulating the agenda of the meeting beforehand. Verm has termed it as the need of the hour to show the right way of functioning to offiers who have been acting irresponsibly. He had objected to the point that even after one and a half years have passed, the decision taken in the previous board meeting are still pending. He has also ‘accused’ the JDA officials of only taking interest in megaprojects while not giving any attention to projects affecting people in city.

Verma has even challenged the jurisdiction of Traffic Control Board as according to him, the right to decide on the routes of buses and issuing permits falls under the jurisdiction and rights of RTO. He has stressed that no law goves the Board any right to interfere in this matter. Furthermore, Verma has also objected to the point that isntead of handing the reponsibility of city transport to JCTSL and RSRTC, it is being handed to private operators. He is strongly in favour of bringing BRTS scheme under usage and has contested that legally, JDA has the right to decide on use of BRTS and that the law does not allow for UDH to interfere in the matter. It is possible only for an officer like Sandeep Verma to give a resounding lecture to a powerful public institution like JDA and to take its officers by the ‘scruff ’. He has even objected to the interference caused by minister. In fact he had taken on a direct confrontation with ministers while serving as Principal Secertary of PHED. In 2009, while serving as Divisional Commissioner of Jodhpur, he had courted controversy. 1993 batch IAS Sandeep Verma is currently CMD of RSRTC and the state government has given him a NOC to head to New Delhi.