E-Paper
Pune RTO short of smartcards, applicants waiting for months for licenses
The reason for the delay is shortage of smartcards required to print permanent licenses and RC books of vehicles at the RTO
Last Friday, Kushal Das visited the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) for the third time in the past two months to know the status of his permanent license smartcard. Das is among over 30,000 such applicants waiting for their permanent license and vehicle registration certificate (RC) book from the Pune RTO for the past two to three months. The reason for the delay being the shortage of smartcards required to print permanent licenses and RC books of vehicles at this RTO. The situation is so bad that daily, there are long queues of people at the RTO office arguing and fighting with the RTO staffers to get their RC books.
Das said, “Since I bought a new bike, I’ve been caught by the traffic police a couple of times despite having completed my permanent license test and gotten the receipt for the same. As I forgot to keep the receipt with me, I was fined by the traffic police for something which wasn’t my fault to begin with. The RTO should immediately clear the pending work and give permanent license smartcards to the applicants.”
Another applicant Neel Shotri said, “I purchased a new car in the month of August and paid the registration fees to the RTO. Since then, I have come here several times to enquire about my RC book and every time, the RTO staffers tell me that my RC book is not ready. This RTO covers a large area of the city and small nearby areas and daily, hundreds of new vehicles are purchased. If people do not get RC books in time due to mismanagement on the part of the RTO administration, it is a serious problem.”
Meanwhile, people visiting the Pune RTO office since the last one week have had to return without getting their jobs done owing to continuous system failure and electric supply disturbed by heavy rain in the city. Those coming for their learning license tests or other vehicle-related work are frustrated with the mismanagement at the RTO. An applicant on condition of anonymity said, “My learning license test was scheduled on Tuesday but due to system failure, my test has been rescheduled to after Diwali. I had taken leave from office specially for this and now, I have to take leave again for the same job.”
Whereas Pune regional transport officer Ajit Shinde, said, “We are working on the problem and have ordered for smartcards to issue to permanent license holders as early as possible. Hopefully in the next few days, we will clear the pendency and issue permanent licenses and RC books to the applicants.”
