Road safety expert seeks judicial probe into driving licence scam

Claiming involvement of bigwigs in the multi-crore illegal driving licence scam in the Transport Department, Kamal Soi, member of the National Road Safety Council and road safety expert, on Wednesday sought judicial probe to unravel the truth.

He said, “Instead of tackling corruption in the Transport Department, the Vigilance officials have been made a scapegoat.”

Soi said numerous complaints against officials of the department and company operating the automated driving test tracks had been pending since long.

He shared how officials in Ferozepur, Amritsar and other districts were issuing illegal driving licences by uploading old videos of candidates, who had cleared the driving test, under the names of new applicants that never undertook the test.

He also shared details of vehicles used multiple times at the automated driving test centres.

Urging the Vigilance Bureau to check records at all 70 centres, including offices of the RTOs, Soi alleged that the department had deliberately delayed the launch of Microsoft’s HAMS (Harnessing AutoMobiles for Safety) system for conducting driving competency tests at the automated driving test tracks.

Raising questions on the working of Smartchip firm, previously awarded contracts for all 32 automated driving test tracks in Punjab, he said though the company withdrew from the contract, its former employees were retained by the department and were asked to conduct tests. He alleged that most of these employees were involved in illegal driving licence scam.