Ferozepur residents fume at delay in getting RCs and driving licences, demand to decentralize printing at local level
Ferozepur residents fume at delay in getting RCs and driving licences, demand to decentralize printing at local level
Ferozepur, March 10, 2023: In this digital era, when the whole system is online, the delay in issuance of driving licences and registration certificates of new vehicles and renewals is pinching the people waiting for the last more than 4 months. The residents of the city have been feeling significant hardships due to prolonged delays in receiving their registration certificates – RCs and driving licences.
Despite making repeated visits to the transport department, the applicants are still unable to obtain these essential documents, causing immense frustration and inconvenience.
Sources said, the issue of delayed issuance of RCs and driving licenses is not confined to Ferozepur alone but is a widespread problem across the entire state. Around 15,000 RCs and driving licences are pending for issuance in Ferozepur while, say, 1.5 lacs from all over Punjab.
The delay in issuance of RCs and DLs is due to centralisation of printing at Chandigarh by some private agency, which used to be at the district level on approval of the RTA. This practice has put the general public in a lot of inconvenience and is open to challan by the traffic police in the absence of valid documents, to the extent of Rs.5,0000. Another source said, the delay in printing is due to non-payment to the private contractor by the government.
Expressing their frustration, Jugjiwan Singh and Chamkaur Singh and Dr.Rajiv Arora, who had come to the RTA office, to pursue for their driving licence and RCS stated that in the internet age, while the system should work fast, it is rather being over delayed for number of months putting the public to lot of inconvenience. Despite visiting multiple times, they didn’t get any updates on the status of the RCs and DLs and expressed uncertainty about when they would finally receive the documents.
Even the official in the RTA office was feeling bad when he was not able to reply to the queries from the public and not taking responsibility for the delays and instead passing the buck to the higher authorities at the headquarters. Other applicants who had visited the regional transport office to inquire about the status of their applications also reported similar problems.
The decentralization of printing at the district level will ease the position besides saving time and revenue over dispatching the RCs and DLs through speed post.
However, RTA Karanbir Singh Chhina, could not be contacted to know the status in this regard despite calling.
