Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) conducted a ‘super test’ for issuing driving licences at the Automated Testing Station at Muttathara in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, where the applicants for licences, as well as Motor Vehicles Inspectors (MVIs), were evaluated. The officials are likely to face action as they failed to prove that maximum people can clear the test within four hours.
Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar ordered the super test after receiving a complaint that MVIs were completing each driving test within two minutes and granting licenses to between 100 and 125 applicants a day. The complaint said that corruption was involved in the process.
At the super test, where top MVD officers were present, the MVIs who had been issuing over 100 driving licences a day could pass a mere 15 of the 98 licence seekers.
Top MVD officers said that around 10 minutes were taken by each applicant to complete the test. However, the licence seekers who arrived for the test on Monday faced much difficulty as the rules were enforced strictly. Most of them failed in the four-wheeler test. One applicant said that he did not pass the test owing to a delay in turning on the indicator.
Incidentally, 22 persons who had been allotted April 29 as the date of the test did not turn up at the testing station after learning that it would be a super test.
The Minister had constituted a special team of top officials to evaluate the time taken for each ground test and road test. The team will soon submit its report to the Minister.
Meanwhile, MVD officials said that no MVI would face disciplinary action over the super test. The exercise was intended to find out the time needed to conduct a driving test following all rules, they said.