A grab of a Metro campaign on corruption at the Beltola PVD, run in the first week of December 2007

What does a rogue driver have to do to get back behind the steering wheel after his licence is seized for being involved in a fatal accident?

Get a duplicate licence issued by the regional transport office (RTO) by paying a tout between Rs 600 and Rs 1,000. Waiting period: not more than a fortnight.

No wonder, the killer wheel count in the city is on the rise.

A routine check in February revealed that a large number of drivers whose licences were seized in the past couple of years have got duplicate ones issued in their names, said an officer in the traffic police department.

“Mohan Jha, a taxi driver whose licence was seized for rash driving a couple of months ago near Park Circus Bridge No. 4, procured a duplicate one within a week. There are many others like him on the roads,” he added.

RTO officials blamed the “callousness” of the police for rogue drivers getting away with a duplicate licence.

“How do we know which driver has committed an offence if the traffic police does not send us a list of errant drivers on time?” asked an official of the Beltola RTO.

“The police take more than a month to inform us about an errant driver whose licence has been seized. The duplicate licence is issued before that,” the official added.

“All one needs to do for getting a duplicate licence is submit a photocopy of the original licence and pay anything between Rs 600 and Rs 1,000 to a tout at the RTO. The touts ensure that no questions are asked about the missing licence,” another official pointed out.

According to the norm, each traffic guard sends a list of the names of errant drivers whose licences have been seized to Lalbazar at regular intervals. The final list, compiled from the inputs of the traffic guards, is sent to the RTO by the officer-in-charge of the raid section.

Senior officers at Lalbazar admitted to the delay in sending the list to the RTO, blaming it on a lack of coordination between the departments.

“Work is on to computerise the RTO offices in the state and link them with the main server. Once it is done, the police can update the list of rogue drivers daily,” said an officer.

A senior Lalbazar officer said: “We have to crack down on the rogue drivers who have obtained duplicate licences. All traffic guards have been alerted.” PVD director Mohammad Kamran was unavailable for comment.