The services related to a Motor Vehicle as well as Driving Licenses are rendered through offices commonly known as RTOs.
The exact name of the Parent Department as well as offices may differ from one state to another ,but the term RTO is unique all over the States. Its named as Transport Department in certain state ,as Motor Vehicles Department in few other states and also as Licensing office and Registration office in certain other states.
The term RTO is derived from the Motor Vehicles Act ,which use this term as Regional Transport officer ( R T O ),with jurisdiction over certain Region,some time in a district or more.
The RTO s are entrusted with lot of statutory duties derived from the Motor Vehicles Act .This includes Licensing of Drivers,Registration of Vehicles ,Issue of different permits Road Safety Matters and Enforcement Mechanism.
Comparing with various other offices,including the Police stations,the foot fall on these offices are very high even beyond the level to manged by the officers and staff employed at each office.As per existing norms a person who attained age of 18 years turn up in these office at least once in his life time.This is due to the diversity of services offered through these offices and its importance in public life.
Unlike other Government offices,the procedure for disposal of files require certain physical actions like inspection of motor vehicles or evaluation of competency of applicant for License Related Matters.
Similarly in the case of Permit Matters ,the RTOs are working as the office of Secretary of the Statutory body,known as RTA ( Regional Transport Authority ) of the district, which grant permits for various passenger services .
These offices are recording highest foot fall in each day.The High Foot fall along with the complex procedure for grant of services made the disposal often delayed.
Almost all category of public who attained the age of 18 years are bound to visit these office at least once in his /her life time or more to obtain various services.
Exploiting these circumstances, lot of middle men intervened between the public and office.The complex procedure as well as heavy foot fall and presence of large number public at these offices for various services are certain facts.
In order to make the offices public friendly,lot of changes were introduced that even ended in the recent scrapping of certain legal provisions.The feasible solutions for these issues are making the procedure simplified and shift the entire system into Digital mode with the provisions for online transactions.
Kerala Initiatives
The vehicle population in the country as well as in the state had increased with alarming pace.The vehicle population in kerala was just 0.25 Lakhs in 1960 which is covered 150 Lakh marks in the recent month.
Increase in vehicle numbers increased the work load of the RTOs as well as more demand for Driving Licenses which require additional man power than the available.Consequently the foot fall in each office raised .The prevailing manual form was in sufficient and incompetent to meet the increasing requirements and demand raised from the public.
In the Mid of year 2001 the Motor Vehicles Department Started projects for full computerization of all the office by developing a special software.
The MVD entrusted the task for developing a software including around 40 plus services to an agency and a team of dedicated officers were recruited to assist the development of the Software.
In the Year 2006 one of the major RTO was turned as the pilot office with the newly developed software,which contained all most all the services.It was a great success and all the MVD offices were converted to first level Smart Offices.
Before that significant step the condition of MVD offices were very pathetic due to lack of space for both the staff as well as public.
The requirement of public vary from one person to other.Few of them want renewal or other similar service in due course but few others want immediate service like renewal of license or transfer of ownership of vehicle at the same day.
In order to fulfill such demands the MVD Kerala has introduced Fast Track Services in all the MVD offices in Kerala.
In Fast Track Counters, services related to Driving License and Transfer of Owner ship of vehicles etc can be done easily.
The service will be offered to First Come First Go basis.
The applicant need to attend in person ,sometimes with ID proof to prove identity.
The finished document will be delivered within 30 minutes.
NO additional Fees is charged.
At District Level Offices 2 full time counters and at Taluk Level office one half day counters are made operational.The only condition is that only applicant come in person .
The Data feed back from the customers shows that the Fast Track Counter was one of the very effective arrangement introduced by not only the MVD but the entire Government Mechanism to meet the urgent demand from the public.
Now VAHAN Cloud Services
The VAHAN portal is introduced by the Central government recently.
It brought lot of innovative changes in the field of Road Transport Services.
Being the Motor Vehicle is a subject included in the concurrent list of the Constitution , the Union government formulated the Motor Vehicles Act for the entire nation .The Act provides for maintaining a National Data Base of vehicle registered in the Country.
As a result the National Data Base known as VAHAN portal was introduced as registration data base of Vehicles and SARATHI for License Data Base.
At present data available in 1376 RT Offices in the country brought under the Centralized Data System .Only 200 plus offices in 3 states are remaining to include in the centralized data storage.
Innovative Changes
The most important changes are enable of online services for Registration,License,Permit and Remittance of Tax ,Fees and Fines.These changes brought drastic changes in the foot fall in these offices.
Now the VAHAN and SARATHI application offer all the services online in the country.In addition to this it is also proposed to start Felicitation Center with the help of private players for online service of the Department.
All these together will reduce the foot fall and congestion in RT Offices .And the offices are now changing the face to Hi Tech level .
For VAHAN service CLICK here
For SARATHI service CLICK here
For MVD web site CLICK here
For Remitting OVER SPEED FINE CLICK here
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