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yesterday

UP Seeks Special Task Force Inquiry After Discovery of Forged India-Nepal Bus Permits

Transport officials are pressing for an overhaul of the VAHAN 4.0 faceless-permit system to tighten cross-border controls after forged documents were confirmed.

The state government has initiated criminal action in at least three districts and requested a high-level probe by the STF. (For representation)
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Overview

  • On July 16, Transport Commissioner Brajesh Narain Singh wrote to DGP Rajeev Krishna requesting a coordinated STF probe into permit forgeries in Aligarh, Baghpat and Maharajganj.
  • FIRs have been registered in the three districts after respective ARTOs certified that no legal cross-border permits were ever issued by their offices.
  • Alerts from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Lucknow and the Sashastra Seema Bal identified suspicious special permits generated via an auto-approval loophole in VAHAN 4.0.
  • The state transport department has urged the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the National Informatics Centre to reconfigure the faceless-permit portal and establish a central real-time verification system.
  • The forged documents breach the India-Nepal Passenger Traffic Agreement, 2014, under which only embassy-issued Form C permits are valid for cross-border travel.