Driving licences by post

“To address this issue we’ve adopted two measures. The department is studying the possibility of mailing licences through the post offices,which will help us verify the address provided by applicants,” said Deepak Kapoor,Transport Commissioner.

The three Regional Transport Offices in the city currently issue around 1,000 learner’s licences a day. Kapoor said these rising instances were brought to notice by the traffic police. The move to check the number of wrong addresses being provided to RTOs,however,involves a lengthy procedure and needs to be studied from legal angle.

“We’re working on making this system optional initially; later it will be mandatory. This new initiative will need an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act and this is being studied by the legal department,” Kapoor added.

Transport experts lauded the idea of providing the new licences through registered post but stressed the need for streamlining the existing licence process. “The department also needs to create a fresh database of existing licences. Apart from that,standardised secure number plates,which are machine-readable with all details of vehicle owners,should be brought in. This will help the traffic police who are now using CCTV cameras to serve challans to offenders,” said Ashok Datar,a transport expert.

Kapoor said,“The department has put flexi-boards in and around all 45 RTOs in the state,warning people that providing a fake address is punishable under Section 420 of the IPC.”