Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday launched a “new” citizen-centric service of e-Registration Certificates (e-RCs) of new vehicles through automobile dealers in the State to facilitate the common man — something that the Akalis claimed was started by them in 2011.
Launching the e-RCs facility, Mann described it as “a historic initiative” that will enable the common man to get the delivery of the smart registration certificate at their doorsteps. “This facility will provide a huge reprieve to the Punjabis desirous of buying new vehicles,” he added.
However, Shiromani Akali Dal president and former deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal claimed that the “online vehicle registration service was launched by Akali Dal led Government in 2011 and is in force since then”.
Sharing news clippings to substantiate his claims on Twitter, Sukhbir asked Mann, “What are you claiming credit for and squandering crores and crores of people's money in the name of this fake badlav (change)?”
Meanwhile, Bhagwant Mann said that ever since assuming the charge of office, the State Government has taken several pro-people decisions to benefit every strata of society. “By empowering private dealers selling new vehicles to issue registration certificates, the State Government aims at giving big relief to the people as they will not have to stand in long queues for hours to get their new vehicles registered at the offices of Regional Transport Authorities and Sub Divisional Magistrates,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that apart from facilitating the common man by saving their time, money and energy, this step will also help in providing clean, transparent, effective and corruption-free administration to people.
The private dealers will provide this facility for new vehicle owners by login through their Aadhaar numbers, after which the dealer will upload data or documents of the new vehicle and verification will be conducted with the owner's Aadhaar number.
“For the registration of a new vehicle, the fees and taxes will be paid online,” said the Chief Minister, adding that registration numbers will be provided to the new vehicle owner on the spot.
He added that registration certificates will be approved at the level of the dealer and the fitment of the high security registration plate (HSRP) will be done by the dealer. “The registration certificate can be downloaded from the link sent on the mobile phone of the vehicle owner, while the smart card of the Registration Certificate will be directly sent to the address of the owner,” he added.