130% surge in duplicate driving licences

CHENNAI: The use of loopholes in the traffic enforcement gadget by way of offenders to procure replica using licences not too long ago came to the fore, when authorities dug into a unexpected surge in programs for replica licences.


The state transport division witnessed the number of replica licences issued throughout Tamil Nadu, bounce from 34,000 in 2016-17, to 78,000 in 2017-2018, recording a 130% build up.

Authorities to start with assumed the surge was due to individuals, who had misplaced their using licences, applying for replica ones after the government made it mandatory for everybody to carry authentic licence remaining August.

But after some extent, when the officers started taking a look nearer on the numbers, they found some of these applicants to be offenders.

“Besides authentic applicants, there have been a number of others whose licences have been seized by way of traffic police and enforcement wing for causing street injuries and involvement in traffic offences like drunken using and over rushing,” said a senior official from the department.

The offenders implemented for replica licences beneath the guise of getting misplaced their authentic ones, added the sofficial.

Commenting on the pattern, a police officer on the city crime records bureau (CRB) said, “We give no objection certificates (NoC) to replicate licence applicants simplest upon getting concurrence from the concerned RTO, to test if the particular licence was fascinated by any violation.”


On a mean, regional transport workplaces (RTOs) in Tamil Nadu obtain 2,000 programs per 30 days for replica licences. But this figure spiked to 10,000 after August 2017, when the state started postponing licences for critical offences.


Nearly 2.3 lakh licences were suspended since then, of which, 41,000 have been caught using drunk.


Though the department has a web based portal to retailer and process data on licence programs, and to report information about offences, the data isn't built-in to keep a take a look at on offenders applying for replica licences.


The division is these days upgrading the portal such that programs from offenders get barred mechanically on the initial level, the official from the traffic division official added.
130% surge in duplicate driving licences 130% surge in duplicate driving licences Reviewed by Kailash on June 15, 2018 Rating: 5
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