BENGALURU: You can soon show a digital version of your driving licence, vehicle registration and Pollution Under Control certificate when stopped by traffic police officials. The Transport Department is preparing to issue a notification allowing the use of the ‘Digilocker’, a Union government initiative to provide an online space for document storage.
Currently, users can sign up for a Digilocker account and get certified copies of their documents stored in the locker. In most cases, the documents will be sent to the locker directly by the issuer. In other cases, the user can upload and e-sign documents like marksheets or driving licences. However, due to lack of awareness about the facility, not many police officials accept digitally stored licenses as valid documents.
But a notification by the Transport Department could change that. “We are in discussions with the e-governance department on how the rules can be modified to permit the use of Digilocker. A notification to this effect will be issued shortly,” Transport Commissioner B Dayananda confirmed, adding that the documents stored in the Digilocker could be used as valid documents.
The upcoming VAHAN-4 and SARATHI-4 projects, an initiative to shift to a web-based system to issue vehicle and licence documents, will also incorporate the digilocker system. The VAHAN-4 pilot project, which began in Ramanagara last week, will be extended across all RTOs once the pilot is completed. The SARATHI 4 (for licence facilities), which is already available at 10 RTOs in the city, will soon be extended to other RTOs, Dayananda said. Applicants who use the new system can log into their digilocker and pull the documents directly from the RTO instead of having to upload it themselves.
The Transport Department has, meanwhile, said that it will not register new vehicles fitted with crash guards or bull guards and will also not renew fitness certificates for vehicles fitted with these guards.
Bike Taxis To Make A Comeback?
The state government, which had put on hold a scheme for permitting use of bike taxis, is taking a re-look at the merits of allowing this cheap form of transport in Bengaluru again. Bike taxis had been outlawed by the Transport Department after they termed it illegal. Several questions about insurance coverage for accident victims as well as licencing mechanisms had been raised after which it was agreed that the department will bring out a set of rules to govern the operation of bike taxis. But this was put on the backburner for a long time and was revived recently. “We met with officials of BMTC and BMRCL to consider the proposal to permit bike taxis. Other cities like Jaipur, Chandigarh and Gurugram have legalised this. We will examine the legal aspects and take a decision,” Transport Commissioner B Dayananda said.
What is Digilocker?
It is a cloud provided by the Union government to all citizens so that they can save their documents online.
How does it work
Sign up for an account at digilocker.gov.in
Access digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online
Easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued by the registered issuers
Self-uploaded documents can be e-signed, which is similar to self-attestation