Is check-date CCTV but a showpiece?

CID proves fight against coal syndicate is not so much a 'mission' as a 'farce'!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 6: Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal’s fight against corruption is not so much ‘mission’ as ‘farce’ with the revelation made by the CID’s special investigation team (SIT) on Tuesday. The revelation has also proved it yet again that ‘reality is reality stranger than fiction’ in Assam.

The SIT led by Nirmal Baishya visited the Koidhora check-gate of the State Transport Department at Khapara and saw a CCTV camera having been installed there. The CID team made an effort to have a look at the CCTV records so as to see the movement of overloaded coal-laden trucks through the check-gate in the recent past. To their utter surprise, the SIT found that the DBR device meant for storing records in the CCTV was missing. The CCTV shows vehicles coming and going through the check-gate but stores nothing for future study. This has made the very purpose of installation of the CCTV camera at the check-gate a futile exercise.

The decision to install a CCTV camera at the check-gate was taken following allegations of overloaded coal-laden trucks getting their passage through Guwahati freely. Such allegations led the State Government to ask the CID to inquire into the allegations, and on its part, the CID formed the SIT. During its investigation, the SIT finds that all is not well in the State Transport Department.

Talking to The Sentinel, Baishya said: “The CCTV camera installed at the Transport Department’s Koidhora check-gate at Khapara is just a showpiece, bereft of its very essence – the DBR that keeps all records stored inside it. For us it is an empty box.”

When asked on the defiance by six Transport officials to the summonses issued to them by the CID and action to be taken against them, Baishya said: “It’ll be decided on Wednesday. We’ve summoned Kamrup(M) DTO (Enforcement) Prasenjit Gosh as well to appear before us on Wednesday.”

The six Transport officials who did not appear before the CID on Monday are – enforcement inspector Chitra Kumar th, assistant enforcement inspector Tapuram Bora, assistant enforcement inspector Anurag Sandilya, assistant enforcement inspector Bedanta Gogoi, enforcement checker Mrigen Sarma and enforcement checker Madhab Neog.                 

Two overloaded coal-laden trucks could cross the Transport Department’s Koidhora check-gate at Khapara in the wee hours on Saturday. However, some CID sleuths on duty at that time seized the two overloaded trucks from Bashishtha. Doing justice to the duty there were assigned to, the CID issued summonses to the six transport officials, who, however, failed to turn up.

The CID is going to inquire into the alleged running of coal syndicate in various areas in the State.