Hyderabad: RTA turns laggard over dispatch of documents

Hyderabad: Transport documents such as driving licences and registration certificates which are supposed to be dispatched by the Road Transport Authority (RTA) through speed post are being delayed by the RTA, due to pending bills of the Postal department. Now for almost two months, the applicants have not received the documents.

For various services offered by the transport department, applicants are made to pay Rs 35 as postal charge. However, despite paying these charges, the applicant rarely receives the documents at their doorstep, but these documents are being handed over directly to the applicants, but a fee of Rs 200 to Rs 300 is being collected for the same.

According to the official sources, after the applicant filed for the document, the process started and the cards were also getting printed, but these documents are not being dispatched due to the pending bills of the postal department.

Many applicants said that the key documents such as smart cards, DLs and RCs which are supposed to be dispatched by the RTA through speed post to which they are collecting Rs 35 as a speed post but are not dispatching the documents. "I got my vehicle registered in the first week of August and have not yet received my vehicle RC," said Shaik Akther, a resident of Mehdipatnam.

Other applicants at various RTA offices pointed out that there is a huge corruption at RTA offices, "At Uppal RTA office, some middlemen said he will get the card within 15 to 30 minutes if I pay Rs 300. When I enquired with the RTA staff, I was told that the card has been dispatched and I have to check with the post office," said G Kishore, a resident of L B Nagar.

Despite getting the vehicle checked and paying the registration fee, which includes application fee, service charge, and postal charges, many applicants have not received the documents through speed post. They said it has been over a month since they have filed an application, but not received yet. Delivering key documents through speed post was made mandatory by the government in 2008 to ensure that no fake addresses are used and to prevent the documents from falling into wrong hands.

Meanwhile, Telangana Auto and Motor Welfare Union General secretary, M Dayanand, said that RTA is supposed to send the documents only through speed post. For the last 2 months there have been several complaints from the applicants that they have not received their documents, despite collecting the money for speed post. Collecting Rs 35 from each applicant which is approximately 500 applicants from each RTA office in total 11 RTAs in Greater Hyderabad, then why there was a pending bill in the postal department. Where is the money going?" he asked.

As per the rules, permits and other services must be delivered by the transport department within 24 hours. However, auto unions and applicants alleged that even driving license and registration certificates of non-transport vehicles are not being delivered. The documents are delivered by hand despite clear norms that they should be sent by post. "Despite being charging various fees they failed to dispatch the documents and even though the applicant paid all charges they are facing difficulties. With this the middlemen are taking advantage and asking extra money to deliver the document in hand by charging Rs 300 to Rs 500 extra, which is clearly a disobedience of rules," said Dayanand.