RLA chaos: GPS server down, shortage of tokens, vehicle registration forms out of stock

The GPS server went down right in the morning. In no time, long queues were formed at the counters. Nobody knew how long it would take for work to start. It was only in the afternoon that the computers started working.

Tejas Gupta, a student of Chandigarh College of Engineering who had come to collect his learner’s driving licence, said, “I was here at 9 am and they asked me to wait for half an hour but I had to wait for more than two and half hours just to collect my licence.’’

Registering and licensing officer Jairam said that there was some electricity fault due to which the GPS servers did not work for three to four hours. The problem was sorted out around 2 pm.

While the servers were down, the office ran out of vehicle registration forms. Officials at the sales counters asked the people to collect the forms after three or four days.

The RLO passed the buck. “It’s the Red Cross Society of the UT Administration which supplies the forms; we only distribute. We can just tell them that enough forms should be available to avoid everyday hassles.”

Although people can download the form from the RLA website and use it, it is not so simple. “The downloaded form does not carry a list of documents which have to be submitted; it leads to confusion at the last moment,” said Vinay Kakkar, who had come to collect a form. Deputy Commissioner Mohammed Shayin, who is chairman of the Red Cross Society, said they could not arrange for the registration forms because of the Lok Sabha election. “But now order has been placed, and the forms will be there at the office very soon,” he assured.

To add to the visitors’ woes, the electronic token system fell flat on the first day of the week. Enough tokens were not available, and people had to wait well after the lunch hour to get tokens.

To this, Jairam added, “In the morning, we issue 200 tokens daily so that people do not have to wait in queues. Today, we were short of 17-18 tokens, so many people came upstairs, complaining. Within half an hour, we got extra tokens delivered at the office and the matter was solved.”

Vishal Garg, a resident of Sector 15, said, “Visiting the RLA office is harassment. Often, the majority of the people have to go back without getting their work done. Sometimes the tokens are not available, sometimes the registration forms are not there.’’