Transport minister tells licensing officers to reply to queries in 24 hrs

NEW DELHI: Motor licensing officers (MLOS) in Delhi will have to respond to all online queries within 24 hours, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said on Friday.

Irked over complaints about public grievances going unanswered on e-mails, Gahlot told special commissioner (transport) KK Dahiya to maintain a daily report on the number of online queries received and replied.

“E-mails have emerged as a major source of communication for people. So, all MLOS need to be sensitised with this system of public grievance redressal. From now on, replies to all e-mails will have to be given within 24 hours,” the minister said.

Dahiya said a new system will be put in place to respond to online queries. “MLOS and at least one more officer in each licensing office will be trained to revert to emails timely. Also, but grievances received will be directed to the concerned section of transport department for timebound resolution,” he said.

However, he said keeping up with the volume of emails is already difficult due to staff crunch. “There are 13 MLOS for a city which has over 10 million registered vehicles. They are working under a lot of pressure. It would be good if they have more helping hands,” Dahiya said.

Hindustan Times spoke to officials, who did not wish to be named, at transport offices in Timarpur, Dwarka, Sheikh Sarai, Loni, Wazirpur, IP depot and Mayur Vihar. All of them said they have one fourth of the sanctioned staff. “Every MLO has only 4-5 regular employees. Work has increased with the exponential increase in vehicles, but the strength of employees is the same,” said one officer.