NRSC member bats for chip-based registration certificate, driving licence
BHUBANESWAR: Amid the raging debate over replacement of smart card based driving licence (DL) and registration certificate (RC) by the soft/pdf version, national road safety council (NRSC) member Kamaljeet Singh Soi criticised the Odisha government for arbitrarily stopping issuance of the two documents in physical mode.
He alleged that Odisha had wrongly interpreted the circular of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which had never made soft versions of the important vehicle documents mandatory.
“Although the MoRTH in its March 2021 amended some rules and specified that the certificate of registration be undertaken electronically, it never imposed on the states to stop smart card based DL,” he clarified.
Strongly arguing in favour of the chip-based DL and RC, Soi said, all drivers may not be internet literate and not have smartphones. Moreover, many areas in the state lack internet coverage. “How can any enforcement official check the authenticity of the documents in no coverage areas?” he wondered.
The NRSC member has also expressed his reservations against the decision to implement the ‘QR code’ without a chip as the enforcement officials need to have android phones with unlimited connectivity to check the authenticity.
“The m-parivahan app of NIC works only on android phones (no iOS application) and internet connectivity is required for verification of the DL and RC. Quick access is not possible and in case of QR code getting faded, the scanning will not happen, which will defeat the very purpose of the exercise,” he pointed out.
Soi has met the senior officials of the Transport department and urged them to roll back the decision of stopping issuance of chip-based DL and RC. He has also drawn the attention of the MoRTH on the advantages of a card with chip over the card only with QR code.