Indore (Madhya Pradesh): With the aim of providing relief to applicants of vehicle registration and driving licences who are waiting for their cards for the past many months, the regional transport officer (RTO) has asked traffic police officials to consider issuing provisional certificates in place of registration cards and also consider online print of licences.
According to RTO Pradeep Sharma, there is a huge pendency of cards due to a shortage of blank registration and licence cards. “We were receiving complaints of people that traffic police cops weren’t considering provisional certificates or online print of licences during vehicle checks and people were facing trouble because of this. Considering the situation, we wrote to officials of traffic police to consider issuing provisional certificates to provide relief to people,” Sharma said.
Shortage of blank cards has become a routine affair at the RTO as blank cards are always out of stock in the office.
Officials of the transport department claimed that not only Indore, but all transport offices across the state were facing such shortage, which is also increasing pendency of work as thousands registration cards and licences are waiting to get printed.
Meanwhile, officials of Smart Chip Company, responsible for printing of the cards, claimed that there was shortage of raw material used for manufacturing the cards, including the chips used in the cards. “The shortage of semiconductor chips is not only affecting manufacturing of vehicles, but also manufacturing of the cards. Other raw materials for the purpose are also being sourced from different countries, such as China, but the supply chain has been disrupted for the past many days, leading to a shortage of cards,” an official of Smart Chip Company, wishing anonymity, claimed.
A large number of applicants for driving licences and registration cards at the Regional Transport Office have been waiting to get their licences for more than two months.
