GURUGRAM: The amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act has led to a four-fold rise in fresh driving licence applicants in Gurugram. What that translates into is five RTO officials to process at least 800 fresh driving licence applications a day. The RTO office in the mini secretariat is cracking under the pressure. And so are the applicants.
Harish, a 22-year-old from Sohna, turned up at 8am to ditch the long lines. He was not early enough. “I thought I would be among the first few when the office opened. But the corridors were already swarming with people when I got here. More than 500 people had arrived before I did,” said Harish, a 22-year-old from Sohna.
Harish has applied for a learner’s permit. “On my first visit, I was told my documents were not in order. Now, half the day has gone by and I have not been called yet. I am dreading the thought of having to come back a third time,” he added.
The amended Act, which came into effect this month, penalises those driving without licence with Rs 5,000, a fine 10 times higher than before. In three weeks since the MVA amendment came into effect, people have started falling in line to avoid the fine. But the RTO office is not equipped to deal with this pressure.
“A day we got 150-200 applications here would be counted as a busy one. Now, at least 800-1,000 applications flood the office each day, which means each official has to service 150 requests a day,” an RTO official said.
But that is not enough. “We can only give out 600-800 tokens in a day. The rest spill over on to the next day’s schedule. The next day, there are another 1,000 new applicants in line, plus the spillover. It just keeps piling up,” the official added.
RTO officials have had to extend the driving test window by three hours every day. “Earlier, we would hold driving tests between 10am and 1pm. Now, it has to go on till 4pm, if we want to accommodate as many people as we can,” the official said, adding, “We can’t even take breaks. We’ve been having lunch after 5-5.30pm these days.”
Harish, a 22-year-old from Sohna, turned up at 8am to ditch the long lines. He was not early enough. “I thought I would be among the first few when the office opened. But the corridors were already swarming with people when I got here. More than 500 people had arrived before I did,” said Harish, a 22-year-old from Sohna.
Harish has applied for a learner’s permit. “On my first visit, I was told my documents were not in order. Now, half the day has gone by and I have not been called yet. I am dreading the thought of having to come back a third time,” he added.
The amended Act, which came into effect this month, penalises those driving without licence with Rs 5,000, a fine 10 times higher than before. In three weeks since the MVA amendment came into effect, people have started falling in line to avoid the fine. But the RTO office is not equipped to deal with this pressure.
“A day we got 150-200 applications here would be counted as a busy one. Now, at least 800-1,000 applications flood the office each day, which means each official has to service 150 requests a day,” an RTO official said.
But that is not enough. “We can only give out 600-800 tokens in a day. The rest spill over on to the next day’s schedule. The next day, there are another 1,000 new applicants in line, plus the spillover. It just keeps piling up,” the official added.
RTO officials have had to extend the driving test window by three hours every day. “Earlier, we would hold driving tests between 10am and 1pm. Now, it has to go on till 4pm, if we want to accommodate as many people as we can,” the official said, adding, “We can’t even take breaks. We’ve been having lunch after 5-5.30pm these days.”
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