Long wait continues for driving licence, RC applicants in Punjab
Harjeet Singh, who was anticipating to make money through the commercial transportation of the newly purchased heavy vehicle, is among the 5 lakh people in Punjab who have been waiting for their Driving Licence (DL) and RCs since last December, due to the state government's delay in issuing the documents.
The government landed in a soup after Smart Chip Private Limited, which was entrusted with the printing of driving licences and RCs in chip cards, exited prematurely in November last year.
'I have made umpteen rounds at the RTO office. I am told to go back and wait. I have started paying instalments to the bank, but my trailer continues to be in the parking lot. In the absence of an RC, I am unable to get a national permit for the heavy commercial vehicle,' said Singh, who agrees that many such small transporters like him are on the verge of getting into depression.
'How can anyone pay such heavy instalments with a vehicle waiting to ply on the roads? If we ply them illegally, there is a huge fine if we get caught,' Singh told The Indian Express.
He said not only were the RCs and DLs not printed, but no other work was also being taken up. 'I am waiting to get the hypothecation removed of another vehicle from its RC. However, that too is not being done. Whenever I go there, they tell me that after the Vigilance crackdown on transport officers, the work is pending.'
Daljeet Singh, a cab driver, has also been struggling to get the RC of a car he purchased to ply as a taxi. 'I have not been able to get the RC from RTO in Mohali. I have visited the RTO several times, but to no avail. I cannot take my car to Chandigarh and other places outside the state as I do not have a printed RC,' he said.
He added, 'For other vehicles, I am unable to get a fitness certificate from the RTO. And, no fitness certificate means I cannot get a national permit. My work has stopped. I am frustrated.'
On April 21, the state government told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that there was a pendency of 4.5 lakh RCs and DLs.
A government official told The Indian Express that they had been able to clear this pendency by half after purchasing the chip cards. A traffic expert, Kamal Soi, however, contested the claim of the government. 'There is no change in the pendency. It continues to remain the same. New applications are added every day. Do you know anyone who is getting the DL and RC? No one,' said Soi, who is planning to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in two to three days.
'They do not have a system. I am preparing a case of how the people are harassed, but the government is looking away,' he added.
Meanwhile, a senior government officer said that they were in the process of inviting tenders for the printing of these documents. 'The process will take two to three months. After that, everything will be streamlined,' the officer said. 'We have called employees from other departments on deputation to the transport department. We will assign them duties. Some will man the driving test tracks, others will be printing the documents. We hope that the work will be streamlined,' he added.
The development came after the High Court on April 21 asked why the government is not getting this work done by people on contract, as there was no shortage of unemployed people in the country. The court had ordered the Punjab government to file an affidavit in the matter.
Soi pointed out that the government cannot invite tenders till they get a stay vacated on inviting tenders from the High Court. 'All they have to do is submit to the HC that people are suffering, and the stay should be vacated. But they cannot even do that. They are caught up in a scam. The system is not working,' Soi remarked.
The government has tried to allot the contract twice. Though tenders were floated, the process got mired in litigation after a private company opposed it in the High Court.
In a PIL, Neha Shukla, who is also awaiting her driving licence, told the High Court that the people of Punjab have to wait for months for an RC.
Soi has been demanding that the government award the contract to the Central Government's National Informatics Centre Services Inc (NICSI) so that the backlog is cleared. Since the government asked the company for a security deposit, the matter did not proceed further. 'We do not want any stop-gap arrangement. We will allot the contract to a company now so that the work goes on smoothly.'
In April, the government had put former Vigilance chief S P S Parmar under suspension along with two other officers, including Swarandeep Singh and Harpreet Singh Mander, after the government busted an alleged transport documents racket.
The suspensions were said to be due to their alleged failure to act against corruption in the transport department. However, Mander and Swarandeep were reinstated a few days ago.
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