At RLA office in Sector 17, Chandigarh, on Thursday. (Kamleshwar Singh)
AS MANY as 104 people got online appointment on the first day for issuance of registration certificate (RC) and driving licence (DL) at the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA) office here at Sector 17 in Chandigarh, on Thursday. To facilitate those who did not have online appointment, only 50 tokens had to be issued on first-come, first-serve basis while others, who came without online appointment, had to return disappointed.
Geeta Sareen, the registration and licensing officer, said for Friday, a majority of the slots for online system have been booked. “For tomorrow, 234 out of 300 appointments for driving licence have been booked while for registration certificates, 239 out of 260 appointments were booked,” she said.
Around 500 people would come to RLA daily for DL and RC, but there were no queues at the office on Thursday.
Baljinder Singh Bittu, Chairman of Federations of Sectors Welfare Association of Chandigarh, said there were many people, who still do not know how to fill forms online.
“The system should not have been rolled out all of a sudden. What about those who are above 50 and not that tech savvy. Even now, there are many people who get their online forms for passport or visa filled by agents. This will encourage that system,” he argued. “A change is never brought about forcibly that just overnight, you say that this thing will be stopped. It should have been kept on a trial basis first or people should have been made aware of it for about a month,” added Bittu.
The Chandigarh Administration, however, stated that the system has been made online only to eliminate the agent system because of which people had to shell out money.
There were about 30-40 people, who returned disappointed, as they had come without appointment and tokens for 50 people had already been given on first-come, first-serve basis.
“Only those who had an emergency or came after completing the documents, asked for yesterday, were given token on first-come, first-serve basis,” Sareen added.
Two days ago, the UT Administration had decided that from February 8, files or documents for issuance of driving licence would not be accepted manually but should be processed through online appointment system only.
The enrolment would be valid for the date of appointment only. The applicant can enroll for appointment by himself or herself only and not for anybody else. If due to any reason, the applicant is not able to complete the process regarding submission of files or documents the same day, he or she will have to apply afresh online.