The Himachal Pradesh government is flouting norms in the installation of GPS devices or vehicle location tracking devices (VLT) which has been made mandatory, Kamaljeet Singh Soi, a member of National Road Safety Council alleged on Wednesday.

Talking to media, he said Centre government had issued directions to implement GPS or VLT devices after the tragic gang rape of a young woman in Delhi in 2012 and had directed that all buses should be fitted with tamper-proof GPS systems with a panic button.

“With a vision to bring down crime against women and children, due to the lack of awareness of the general public regarding the Central Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989 (CMVR), the provisions were made to ensure safety and security of the public at large, especially women.

However, the Directorate of Transport of the state government is creating a monopolistic situation by empanelling only five manufacturers to undertake the implementation of directions,” he said.

Soi further alleged that there had been deliberate and inordinate delay in concluding the empanelment process and giving approvals to the other VLT device manufacturers.

Further, the government was not adopting a common layer backend system for integration of VLT devices with the national database of VAHAN in real-time.

The manner in which the implementation had been envisaged, suffers from several practical issues which indeed were detrimental to the interest of the public in Himachal.

“The Transport department is using a third party private backend system for fitting VLT devices in the state which is in clear contradiction to the set rules as well as the notifications issued by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways,” he added.

He further alleged that this would lead to the state government having no control on VLT installations and such manufacturers either directly or through their dealers.

It is pertinent to mention here that states like Chhattisgarh, Delhi (NCR), Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir have already started the implementation through a common layer backend.

He called for setting up Common Layer Backend Application for effective implementation of rules, completing the empanelment process, approvals to other eligible manufacturers to avert from creating any monopolistic situation as it seems to be currently.