Ravi Gaikwad


Ravi Gaikwad is the chief of RTO, Thane and the Konkan region. He is also the chief of the Road Safety Cell in Maharashtra. He serves as the chairman of the Handball Federation of India, a member of International Handball Federation. He is also on the board of Indian Olympic Association and All India Football Federation. Gaikwad is also the President of Uttrakhand Football Federation.

Biography

Early life

Gaikwad was born in Pune to Pushpa and Kisanrao Gaikwad. His father is a retired bureaucrat in the Government of Maharashtra and his mother is a housewife. He completed his early education at Little Flower Convent High School and later received his engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunication as a gold medallist across all universities in the state of Maharashtra. He was an HSC Topper in Maharashtra State. He worked as a scientist. He has represented in Under 15, Under 17, and Under 19 categories and was selected in the Ranji Trophy Camp of Maharashtra.

Career

Gaikwad worked as the head regional transport officer of the Andheri RTO. In 2009, he was accused in controversies related to registration of imported bikes. Subsequently he was transferred to Beed but he did not join the office there. In 2015, Gaikwad was appointed as the deputy regional transport officer. He also held the office of Borivali Regional Transport Office, Mumbai as the Chief. Currently he is the head of RTO Thane and Konkan.
In 2016, Gaikwad supervised the largest road safety class in Mumbai and set a Guinness World Record. The event was organized by Borivali DRTO.
He also headed the team that initiated action against a motor training school for allegedly booking more than 100 appointments for driving license using a single mobile number. In 2018, Gaikwad led the team consisting of Borivali RTO and Mumbai Police that busted the fake police certificate-issuing racket. After the RTO department invited applications for issuing fresh permits to taxis and autos in 2017, it came across a number of applications with fake No Objection Certificates. Thereafter, with the help of the Mumbai police, the Borivali RTO busted a gang that helped the drivers of these vehicles get fake police permissions and arrested four accused in the case.
In February 2016, he set the Guinness World Record for organizing the largest handball lesson, which was attended by 678 people in Solapur, Maharashtra.
In 2018, Gaikwad organized the 'Horn Not Ok' campaign to increase road safety awareness. The drive was attended by Indian cricketers Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan.
During the coronavirus lockdown, in May 2020, Gaikwad saw action against illegal transport of migrants with them issuing 250 memos to such vehicles. Over a lakh migrants have been helped by him, being transported in a correct manner through 10000 MSRTC buses with a huge surge in the crowd seen in Thane, the highest in this crisis.
In January 2020, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shree Udhav Thakre awarded Gaikwad the "Road Safety Award of Maharshtra" for his contribution towards road safety in reducing the number of accidents and deaths on Indian roads.

Controversy

During his tenure at Andheri RTO, Gaikwad was alleged to have helped the import of the registration of five bikes, an accusation that was investigated. He was exonerated of all charges. The order stated that there was no need for the enquiry to be conducted against Gaikwad.