The announcement by the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari pertaining to scrapping of Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) and replacing them with an efficient alternative system in the next few months has made the Transport Department of the Delhi Government revive its five-year-old proposal. In its bid to cleanse vehicle registration mechanism and issuance of motor driving licences, the Transport Department had also proposed to do away with the Regional Transport Offices. The proposal is being studied again in the light of the announcement by Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to do away with the RTOs.
Currently there are 13 such offices all over Delhi. A proposal to this effect was moved by the Transport Department some five years ago but was put on hold due to the pressure exerted by the certain quarters.
Top sources told The Pioneer that the Transport Department had earlier proposed to do away with the Regional Transport Offices by going online and outsourcing. “As per proposal, it has planned to link Regional Transport Offices with motor driving schools. As per the proposal, the motor driving schools were to be roped in to issue driving licence online. A proper plan was chalked out,” sources said. There are 400 registered motor driving schools in the national Capital.
The department was also supposed to fix standard and curriculum of the training programme for these driving schools. “In this entire process, there was no human interface or involvement of tout and middlemen. Unlike the existing process where tests are taken on paper by officials, who reportedly pass candidates even without sitting for it by accepting bribes there have also been complaints of deserving candidates getting the red mark because they have refused to pay bribe, the new process has little human interface. Once a person has taken the test and passed it, he/she will be granted a licence,” said an official of the Transport Department. Presently, the Regional Transport Office at Vasant Vihar is the only office where human interface is minimum and fully computerised.