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Yes, yes and yes! I do firmly believe so.

Anyone who has had their license confiscated is well aware of the difficult process the RTO has in place in order to recover confiscated licenses. One firstly, has to get the day to retrieve the license right… if you go too early to the RTO office - you are told that your license has not arrived as yet… and if you go on time - your license is filed deep inside somewhere and takes many hours to be returned - as you get bounced from one table and government official to the next. This, in my opinion, is somewhat deliberate and results in a high bribe rate when one is held up for traffic driving violation. Currently there is no strong smooth system in place that facilitates recovering your confiscated license. You are issued a “temporary slip” - called a “pauti” in Hindi and you have to visit the RTO office to get your license back and pay the fine. Although sometimes, you can pay the fine on the spot to the officer on duty - your license will always get confiscated as a rule. This is unlike overseas western nations - where you are to pay the fine and the electronic database automatically notch up your traffic violation points - which if cross a particular number - result in your license confiscation and a loss of driving privileges for x amount of time as a penalty.

In India, the system chooses not to go electronic. Reason? Officials are probably happy with the current system, as it leads to more corruption. Frustrated citizens choose to “bribe” officers who hold them up for traffic violations - as they do not want to undergo the utter time-wasting and frustrating procedure to recover a confiscated license. This frustration, I believe has been deliberately put in place, or is consciously being chosen not to be improved or modified - as a lot of officials are enjoying bribes - from frustrated citizens. Most of us who are caught for a small mistake - DO want to pay the official fine - but DO NOT want to undergo the process of retrieving confiscated licenses.

So, how do opt to avoid this frustration (that can take away almost an entire day of work) ? Well, majority of us choose to bribe the official… even though we can afford the fine and would prefer to be ethical and legal - we choose the easy way out… avoiding the frustration and headache of visiting the mostly inefficient offices to recover our license.

This blog is a message out to the government to take the process of enforcing fines to traffic violators and the following license recovery procedure - online.

Yes, I firmly believe that if this is taken online and the license recovery procedure is made more smooth and user friendly - then majority of the citizens will pay the fine - and not mind visiting the office to recover their confiscated license at a specified appointed time. Knowing well in advance, when to go, will help the government schedule their load and citizens will be pleased to know that physical license recovery will not frustrate them and should happen within an hour (or x amount of time) at the RTO offices.

I just read this morning that the Ministry of Home Affairs, has taken the information of Police and Prisons online in a single website at www.bprd.gov.in . The Times of India advertisement said that “Information on Policing is Just a Click Away! Police Stations and Police Offices of 10 States, including Delhi are now on our website, for their telephone and contact information”. Great job!

Now, please take the RTO and license recovery online too! I firmly believe it will help reduce corruption in the form of bribes by over 50% … what do you think?

— Vishal Lamba    Filed under: Uncategorized