Applicants for learners’ licenses could well get it within 24 hours – made possible with the implementation of the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act. Although the Act has stipulated more time for the State Transport Department to deliver various services, to avoid a backlog, the department is working more efficiently, resulting in document delivery to applicants before the stipulated time.
There are 13 regional transport offices (RTOs) in the city which dispatch hundreds of documents related to vehicle registration, licenses, etc. on a daily basis. The additional task now is to issue an acknowledgement letter to the customers. The Kormangala RTO which is the Central RTO receives over 500 applications on an average, related to various services provided by the department. On a daily average, the Central RTO receives 100 applications for DLs and the same number of LLs applications, around 150 applications for car registration, 150 applications for two-wheeler registration and around 25 vehicle registration applications for transport vehicles. They have not, even once, delayed the documentation process or dispatched the documents belatedly.
“For the delivery of learners' license. government has stipulated 6-7 days for delivery of the documents. But we are ensuring that these are dispatched to the applicant the same day or within 24 hours. For the dispatch of drivers' license, the time stipulated in the Act is 30 days, but we deliver the DLs within a week. The additional work is that we have to issue a letter of acknowledgement to the applicants while rendering services. As of April 17, we have no pending applications. Efficient working and speedy disposal of documents ensures that no backlog is created,” said Shobha M, Regional Transport Officer of Kormangala jurisdiction.
Computerization of the RTO has made the documentation process easy and also helped in rendering quick services to citizens. “The next major milestone will be online payment of transport taxes and we are working towards this,” said a senior transport department official.