HYDERABAD: Motorists who have applied for driving licence, vehicle registration, renewal of licence or RC, duplicate cards etc. are facing severe inconvenience these days due to the inordinate delay in issuance of smart cards.This issue has been prevailing at all Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices in Greater Hyderabad for the past two months, resulting in motorists being forced to do rounds of the RTA offices.
According to sources, every RTA office in Hyderabad is forced to keep over 500 smart cards pending every day. In fact, some have stopped printing smart cards for the last 10 days. On average, RTA offices equipped with a testing track print more than 600 smart cards whereas regular offices print nearly 400 cards.
According to sources, the RTA is yet to clear the pending dues to the contractor concerned who eventually stopped printing of the cards.A few years back, there was a similar kind of situation and the contractor printed smart cards only after the dues were cleared and the Authority started clearing the bill regularly.
Reacting to the shortage, Telangana Auto and Motor Welfare Union general secretary M Dayanand demanded to know why authorities are being negligent when the RTA is collecting Rs 400 towards service charge and Rs 250 for smart card and Rs 35 as postal charges to dispatch the card.
In 2019, former transport minister Vemula Prashant Reddy had set up a committee to resolve such issues, particularly delays in dispatching smart cards. However, no action has been taken by authorities till now. In fact, the RTA is now not sending any SMS to applicants or alerting the media regarding delay in dispatching smart cards.
The problem arises when vehicle owners go for fixing the number plate, crossing the state borders and during the vehicle checking. The agents at automobile showrooms fix the high security registration plate only after seeing the original RC card. With this, many vehicle owners are driving with temporary registration (TR) stickers.
Moreover, the zero challan receipt given after completing the transaction of driving licence is valid only for seven days. Fearing hefty penalties and seizing of vehicles at check posts in other States, motorists prefer using other modes of transport. The worst-hit are those travelling abroad who require an international driving licence. The delay in issuing smart cards is torturous for such applicants.