Dept stops renewal of old licences

Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, December 4

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Many residents are forced to do the rounds at the District Transport Department to get their old driving licences (expired ones) renewed. Sources in the District Transport Department said the renewal of old licences had been stopped for the time being on the instructions of the State Transport Commissioner. The reason being given is that many renewed licences were issued by entering fake names/numbers in a few districts of the state.

One of the officials with the DTO here said the website was basically operated by the head office in Chandigarh.

“They have deleted the backlog option. Our office will not be able to tell how many licences are to be renewed in the district. Secondly, on the instructions of the Transport Department, Punjab, the renewal of copy licences has been stopped for the time being, so not just Ludhiana district but also the other districts have the problem,” said the official.

The licences are renewed by the SDM office as well as DTO office. The sources said on an average, 100 such licences were received on a daily basis in the district. The renewal of old licences has been banned since October 20.

“If there was any misuse of the software, the officials/staff concerned should have been penalised. Two months have passed but the state Transport Department has not been able to find a viable solution to the problem. They should have roped in some other company or updated the software to clear the backlog. We are suffering because of this lackadaisical approach of the Transport Department,” said Varun Kumar, a resident of Civil Lines, whose licence has expired.

“Our precious time is lost in convincing the police that no old licences is being renewed,” said Satbir Singh.

The official with the DTO said the problem would be sorted out within a few days as the Transport Department was trying to find a solution to the problem. “We are being blamed by the residents for not clearing the backlog whereas the fault lies with National Informative Centre (NIC) because of which many licences were renewed on the basis of fake entries made by the staff,” he alleged.