Regional transport offices (RTOs) must ensure that those who have not received their smart cards or driving licences by post should collect them from the offices in person, the state government has decided.
A notification issued by the transport department on Thursday said that the
concerned transport officer of a particular region “will hand over these smart cards to the registered owner or driving licence holder on receipt of proper identification document(s) regarding his/her identity and his/her address as submitted.”
The notification, signed by Saumitra Mohan, transport secretary, said “a list of returned smart cards is to be displayed at the notice board of every RTO office”.
Senior officials said the move to make regional transport officers accountable for handing over smart cards and driving licences, which have not been delivered by post, comes in light of several applicants alleging they had not received their cards and licences despite paying an additional amount to ensure their timely deliveries within three to four days by post.
Many people alleged they cleared their driving licence test months ago, but have yet to receive their licences.
Sources in the state government said around 12,000 dispatches were sent from the Public Vehicles Department in Calcutta through post to recipients across 23 districts of the state on a daily basis.
A significant number of these dispatches would return because the addresses
were either found to be wrong or untraceable.
In many cases, the returned ones would be left dumped in one corner of the transport offices.
“The RTOs have been instructed to call the applicants whose items have returned and hand over the smart cards and driving licences to them. They would have to ensure no returned items remain stacked in some odd corner of the office’s store room
and every applicant receives either the smart card or the driving licence that he or she had applied for,” a senior official of the transport department said.
“Just because an address does not match, an applicant can’t be deprived of the state government’s services that he is entitled to,” he said.
Senior officials said the smart cards and driving licences could not be delivered for several reasons, including faulty addresses, wrong PIN code and in some cases, applicants no longer staying at the address they had provided.
“A young student may have applied for a driving licence while pursuing his post-graduation from a university hostel. The address mentioned is that of the hostel, while the applicant may have moved out,” the officer said.
“Someone may have bought a car while staying in a rented accommodation with a temporary address and then shifted to a permanent address. In such circumstances, the items don’t get delivered,” he said.
The new directive said the ones returned would be sorted according to districts and returned to the concerned RTOs with a message to ensure they are hand-delivered after proper authentication.
“Those looking for a smart card for their cars can also authorise the car dealers with proper documents so that their representatives can come and collect them from the RTOs,” the officer added.