Excise department impounds vehicles… does not have any space to park them

Sample this ,recently,the Excise department caught 10 trucks carrying different articles from Delhi. The consignments in the trucks were to be delivered to a few traders in the city.

On a tip-off,however,officials confiscated the vehicles as they did not have the valid documents. This resulted in a considerable inconvenience for the officials,who fearing that that the drivers may run off with the vehicles late in the night,were forced to guard them till late in the night.

The small parking area in front of the building is used for parking the vehicles of senior officials. The parking lot adjacent to the building belong to the Municipal Corporation and has been auctioned for a paid parking lot.

“We have brought the matter to the notice of the higher-ups several times to allot us a specific site for the purpose but nothing has been done so far ,” said a senior official of the department on condition of anonymity.

The official admitted that incidents had occurred when some truck operators have managed to flee along with their loaded vehicles during night hours or just take away goods from the vehicles to reduce penalty charges.

Recently the department had registered a case against a truck driver,who had fled along with his impounded truck during night hours. “What is even worse is that the department does not even has a place to check the loaded goods to assess the penalty amount”,said the official on condition of anonymity,adding that if a proper place is be allotted to them,the department will only need one person to guard the site.

The department has collected Rs 1.20 crore so far this year as penalty from such vehicle operators,who entered the city without the requisite documents for the loaded goods.