Aadhaar-driving licence linking to reduce RTO crowds: Official

The Centre's decision to linkAadhaar card with driving licence and vehicle registrationcertificate (RC) will considerably reduce crowds at RegionalTransport Offices (RTOs) and make them free of agents andtouts, a top Maharashtra government official has said.

Transport Commissioner Avinash Dhakane, talking toreporters at his office here on Monday, said the Uniongovernment has issued a draft notification about linkingdriving licence and RC with Aadhaar, a unique 12-digitidentity number assigned to residents of India.

''The Government of India has already issued a draftnotification for Aadhaar linkage. Once that happens and Vahanand Sarathi systems get linked with Aadhaar, crowds at RTOswill reduce to 20 per cent (from current level),'' he said.

Post-these changes, only a few people will have tovisit RTOs for work related to driving licence and vehiclefitness, among others, the transport commissioner said.

The Aadhaar linkage will eliminate the need forvisiting RTOs and submitting documents, he said.

Officials said the move will also curb forgery and endthe menace of duplicate driving licences.

According to Dhakane, at present the 50 RTOs spreadacross the state have footfalls of about 1.50 lakh daily.

This number will go down below 40,000 or even moreonce Aadhaar card is linked with driving licence and RC, hesaid, adding the move will also make RTOs free of agents andtouts.

Many people prefer to get their work done through RTOagents and touts, who charge hefty amounts, leading tocorruption and depriving citizens of better services,according to activists.

In 2014-15, the then transport commissioner, MaheshZagade, had announced a ban on the entry of agents and toutsinside RTO premises, but the change did not materialise onground due to various reasons.

Maharashtra has a vehicle population of nearly 3.5crores and over 20 lakh new vehicles get registered annually.

Also, the state has already issued over 3.5 crorepermanent driving licences and around 10-15 lakh new ones areissued annually.

According to transport department officials, recentlythey launched a provision of digital signature for obtaininglearning licence, which has a validity of six months.

People can authenticate their documents by digitallysigning them.

A senior official said the department has alreadyreceived over 700 learning licence forms signed digitallysince the start of this month.