Crackdown on fake bus permits on India-Nepal route
Officials said the issue was first flagged by FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office) Lucknow and SSB where several buses presented permits at the Nepal border that appeared to be issued by the Regional Transport Office but were found to be completely fake or beyond legal jurisdiction (Ultra Vires) upon probe. So far, forged permits have been confirmed in three districts—Aligarh, Baghpat and Maharajganj—where the respective ARTOs have certified that no such documents were issued from their offices.
Following this, FIRs have been filed and legal proceedings initiated against the accused.
Additionally, similar permits have been presented in districts like Gorakhpur, Etawah and Auraiya, which prima facie violate the provisions of the India-Nepal Passenger Transport Agreement, 2014. Departmental disciplinary action has begun in the Gorakhpur case.
According to official sources: "RTO-based touts were generating permits for the India-Nepal route which is not even required.
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Since the private bus operators were not aware of rules, they were paying hefty amounts for the fake permits. This burden was ultimately passed on to the passengers who had to pay extra for the commute."
Given the seriousness of the matter, transport commissioner Brajesh Narayan Singh has written to Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Krishna, requesting that the State Task Force (STF) conduct a comprehensive and coordinated investigation in these districts.
As per section 88(8) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and Articles III(5) and III(11) of the India-Nepal Agreement, only permits issued in Form-C by the destination country's embassy-consulate are valid for international routes.
Permits issued in SR-30 or SR-31 forms at the state level are not legally valid for the India–Nepal route.
Some permits were also found to be auto generated via the VAHAN 4.0 portal due to manual entry allowed in the "via" column, where "Nepal" was entered.
The department had earlier instructed National Informatics Centre (NIC) to restrict this to a dropdown list, but the implementation was partial. The department is now requesting NIC to fix this loophole and restructure the faceless permit system.
The commissioner has also written to the Centre requesting MEA to share all Form-C permits issued by Indian and Nepali embassies with enforcement agencies; NIC to develop a portal for real-time verification of permits at the India-Nepal border and MoRTH to clarify that only Form-C is a valid international permit.
UP shares an over-550-km border with Nepal, covering seven districts -- Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Shravasti, Balrampur, Maharajganj and Siddharthnagar.
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