I had taken part in the trip to the Jim Corbett National Park organized by LBSNAA along with 13 other officers on May 19-20, 2007. The following unfortunate incident happened to me on the return journey on May 20, which is narrated briefly as below:
Since I had to meet a relative at Kashipur on the way, a vehicle bearing no.UA-07G-7767 was placed at my disposal, while the remaining officers moved in the other 3 vehicles. We started from our place of stay at Ramnagar at around 1.00pm. The driver of the vehicle was ill mannered. Though an AC vehicle was hired by the Academy, the driver chose not to operate the AC. He claimed that since he is short on fuel, he could not afford to switch on the AC, since the mileage of the vehicle would decrease to 10 (with AC) from 14 km per liter of fuel (without AC). We had to bear with the sultry heat.
The driver then insisted on playing some loud Punjabi music, which was jarring to our ears. Even when my wife and children asked him to switch off the music, he refused to pay heed. Anyway, we reached Najibabad railway crossing (which was closed) at around 5:30pm. Since the gate would take another 30 minutes to open and the heat and noise was becoming unbearable, we decided to get down the vehicle and take some refreshments. The driver was asked to come to a point in front of the Krishna Talkies. However, when we reached Krishna Talkies after some refreshments at 6.00pm, the vehicle was not there. We searched for the vehicle till 6:55 pm, when we noticed the approaching vehicle.
On being asked for the delay, the driver rudely asked me either to get on the vehicle or get out with my luggage. The humiliation was unbearable. We removed our luggage from the vehicle and dialed 100 for local police assistance. The police arrived promptly. However, the police to my shock informed me that the vehicle was bearing a private registration number which is not permitted for commercial hiring. My usage of the vehicle was thus found to be illegal. This greatly embarrassed me on the spot. The police informed me that the vehicle would have to be impounded and the driver challaned, though the police offered to hire another vehicle for our transport to Mussoorie at my cost.
I then rang up another officer, Ms.Anju Sharma, on her mobile and also the head driver for help. The taxi provider was contacted and he made available an Indica car after 2 hours at 9:10 pm at Najibabad. All this while I had to stay on road in a PCO booth. This replacement vehicle suffered a breakdown after 30 km near the UP-Uttarakhand border checkpost at 10.00 pm. The vehicle could be made operational after another 30 minutes. I reached Mussoorie at 1:00am after changing vehicle at Dehradun. All this caused great distress and suffering, besides mental agony, to my wife and small children.
In this context, caution needs to be exercised while hiring vehicles for Academy use. The hiring agency must be of good repute and the vehicles on hire must bear commercial registration. Illegal use of private vehicles for commercial plying brings bad name to the good image of LBSNAA.
