Licence elude learners who passed driving test as Parivahan portal remains defunct

Kakkanad: Learners who have passed the driving test during the summer vacation complain that they haven’t received their license yet. Although the motor vehicle inspectors send the files of learners who have passed the 8, H, and road tests to the RT offices, the licenses are not promptly approved because the Parivahan website remains down.

Earlier, the license was sent to the learner via post. However, now, learners are instructed to download the licence from the website and laminate it. Meanwhile, the few licenses that have been approved are not downloadable either. The motor vehicle department authorities are unable to provide proper answers to applicants' queries, and they often assure them that the website will resume functioning soon.

The officers say the website should be restored by the central government, as its content is managed by it. More than 4,000 files, including applications for driving licences, remain piled up at the Ernakulam RT Office due to the Parivahan portal outage. Officers here say that they have not been able to consider many applications or initiate various processes.

Things were already moving at a snail’s pace at the RT Office after the two technicians hired to immediately repair the website or the computer if they crashed were pulled back around two months ago. The crisis has worsened, now that the Parivahan portal has also stopped working.

Approving driving licenses, vehicle registrations, fitness of old vehicles, transfers of vehicle ownership, deleting loan details from the RC, adding loan details, and editing addresses have all fallen into chaos. The authorities complain that the Parivahan portal rarely opens, and even when it does, it gets stuck midway.

Officers at the RTO say they are unable to provide effective service to the public due to a website glitch. A file or an application cannot be moved without access to the portal, as everything at the RT Office has become online. The officers at the enquiry desk often get overwhelmed, giving excuses to the public who come for various purposes.

The applicants come to the office in person to enquire about the status of their application, as they have not seen any progress for weeks. The officers assured them that their applications would be considered on priority as soon as the website starts functioning. Meanwhile, heated exchanges between the officers and the public have become a common sight at the PRO counter.

The applicants also complain that they seldom receive service from the motor vehicle department at the Akshaya centres. The same could be said about the E-Seva centres too. The applicants have to spend hours at the computer, waiting for the portal to work, to apply for the learner's test or to schedule a date for the driving test. Although some applicants contact the RTO or the Joint RTO directly, these officers, too, are helpless.