Wait for two months to get learner’s licence in Jalandhar

JALANDHAR: If you are planning to get a new learning licence in Jalandhar, you will have to wait for at least two months before you could apply for it online as the slot is not available until November.

As per the norms, each applicant has to book a slot online to appear for the mandatory written test after which he/she is given a learning licence for six months by the district transport office (DTO). The DTO department has fixed a slot of 120 persons per day for online application, however, due to increase in a number of applicants, the slots are taken within an hour and now the wait has gone till November.

When contacted, secretary RTA Nayan Jassal said that the department has recently increased online slot for application from 100 to 120, but sudden rise in new applications is making difficult to meet the demand.

Jalandhar DTO clerk Balwinder Singh said that sudden spike in number of people applying for the licence has led to a wait of two months. He said that three months back an average of 50 licence were made in a day but now even despite clearing 100-120 licence a day, the pending application is only piling up. Stricter traffic laws and rise in vehicles’ numbers are major reasons , he added.

WAIT LONGER FOR THOSE WHO FAIL TEST

The problem worsens for those who fail the driving test or are absent on the test date, as they will have to wait another two months to re-appear for the test due to pending applications.

“This online process of fixing slot has added to the pendency as not all candidates pass the driving test in one go,” a senior transport officer said on request of anonymity.

Jalandhar transport office is also facing staff crunch as most of the posts at DTO are vacant and there was no new recruitment made in the department in the past decade. Further, the staff strength has only declined over the time on account of retirement of employees, as these posts were yet to be filled. A worker at the DTO office said that they have only 13 employees, including transport secretary regional transport authority (RTA) section officer, who handle the rush of an average 1,000 visitors daily. Even the post of additional district transport officer has been lying vacant for months now.