Koshur Samachar

The emerging crisis of staff shortages in the Transport Department is not merely an administrative inconvenience; it is a structural governance failure with deep cascading consequences for public safety, economic activity, and citizen services. Recent official disclosures indicate acute manpower shortages across the department-from headquarters to district-level ARTO offices-at a time when vehicle numbers and regulatory responsibilities are expanding rapidly. The situation reflects a long-ignored institutional problem rather than a sudden administrative gap. The Transport Department operating far below their sanctioned strength and enforcement wings running on skeletal staff. The crisis mirrors a broader pattern across the UT, where tens of thousands of Government posts remain vacant across departments, indicating systemic recruitment delays and structural failures in manpower planning.

The current situation cannot be attributed to a single year or a single recruitment cycle. Government departments operate on predictable workforce cycles-retirements occur annually, promotions create downstream vacancies, and skilled employees often move to better career opportunities within Government systems. If vacancies are not referred to recruiting agencies in a timely manner, the backlog accumulates silently until it reaches crisis levels. Evidence from across J&K shows recruitment processes often lag despite instructions to refer vacancies well in advance, suggesting a coordination gap between departments and recruiting agencies. The consequences of such neglect are visible today. Running an office with 30-40 per cent staff strength is not a matter of “adjustments”; it is operational survival. While official statements claim service delivery is being maintained through rational deployment, practical realities are different. When technical posts like Motor Vehicle Inspectors remain vacant, core regulatory functions slow down dramatically. Experiences show that even 30-40 per cent vacancy levels severely weaken the enforcement of road safety norms and vehicle inspections.

The cascading effects are multi-layered. First is the service backlog. Licensing, vehicle registration, permit renewals and fitness certifications require technical scrutiny and administrative processing. With limited staff, files accumulate, appointments get delayed, and citizens are forced into repeated visits. Long queues for driving tests and vehicle inspections become inevitable. For commercial vehicle owners, delays mean vehicles remain off-road, leading to daily financial losses and disruption of supply chains. Second is employee burnout. Skeleton staffing forces employees to handle multiple roles simultaneously-administrative, technical and public interface duties. This results in extended working hours, cancellation of leave and chronic stress. Overworked employees are more likely to commit procedural errors, further slowing processes and increasing public dissatisfaction. A department that should regulate road discipline ends up struggling to manage its own internal workflow.

Third is the collapse of enforcement. Field inspections, highway checking and implementation of safety mechanisms such as speed governors, permit compliance and fitness verification require adequate manpower. Enforcement drops sharply when inspector vacancies rise, leading to reduced vehicle inspections and increased violations. When enforcement weakens, the immediate consequence is regulatory non-compliance. In regions like J&K, where hilly terrain already increases accident risk, any reduction in enforcement multiplies vulnerability.

Practically, in a region where transport is a lifeline for trade and connectivity, inefficiency in the transport regulatory system creates economic ripple effects. The most serious concern, however, is administrative accountability. If vacancies accumulated because departments failed to refer posts in time, responsibility must be fixed. If recruiting agencies delayed processes despite timely references, that too must be examined. Governance cannot function in a vacuum of accountability. The immediate priority must be expedited recruitment through fast-track selection mechanisms. Parallelly, temporary solutions such as the deputation of trained staff from other departments should be considered to stabilise field offices. Allowing such extraordinary vacancy levels to persist risks normalising institutional decay. The Government must treat this as a structural emergency, not a routine administrative issue. A functional transport regulatory system is not optional-it is central to road safety, economic mobility and public service delivery.