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Yet another commendable effort to make our roads safer. People now cannot obtain driving license without actually driving a car. Here's a report from TOI (Link).
Drive Safe,
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NEW DELHI: It will not be easy anymore to obtain a certificate from any motor driving training school by skipping actual training. Considering the high prevalence of people faking the records of mandatory 21 hours' training, the transport department of Delhi government is developing a software to link all motor driving institutes.
According to the plan envisaged, a person has to go for biometric attendance during training, which can be checked by officials of transport department and those issuing driving licences. "We will have this software in place in the next one month. Then we will ask all driving training institutes to follow the new norm," said Ranjit Kumar Singh, deputy transport commissioner at a conference on training of drivers of heavy vehicles held at the College of Traffic Management (CTM) in Faridabad.
City's motor licencing officer Anil Chhikara added that at present, driving training institutes keep attendance registers of trainees and it's easy to alter records. "You will find people bringing certificates from these institutes without even undergoing practical training. Once we have the biometric system, officials can check attendance," Chhikara said.
Annually, at least six lakh licences are issued or reissued in Delhi and there are only 70 motor driving training schools. Singh said they are also considering to rate these institutes in the near future. "Maharashtra has done this rating and Orissa government plans to make it mandatory for every applicant to undergo training from a recognized training school. The best practices are being adopted by more states, which is a good sign," said joint secretary (transport) Nitin Gokarn.
Delhi is also the first state which has made it mandatory for all driving licence holders of heavy vehicles to undergo refresher training when they go for renewal. Every year at least 60,000 such licences are issued or renewed in the capital. "All other states must replicate this and the Central government must ask them to follow suit. To make our roads safe, we are also recommending to the Centre to have a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol consumption by bus drivers," said road safety expert and CTM director Rohit Baluja.
According to the plan envisaged, a person has to go for biometric attendance during training, which can be checked by officials of transport department and those issuing driving licences. "We will have this software in place in the next one month. Then we will ask all driving training institutes to follow the new norm," said Ranjit Kumar Singh, deputy transport commissioner at a conference on training of drivers of heavy vehicles held at the College of Traffic Management (CTM) in Faridabad.
City's motor licencing officer Anil Chhikara added that at present, driving training institutes keep attendance registers of trainees and it's easy to alter records. "You will find people bringing certificates from these institutes without even undergoing practical training. Once we have the biometric system, officials can check attendance," Chhikara said.
Annually, at least six lakh licences are issued or reissued in Delhi and there are only 70 motor driving training schools. Singh said they are also considering to rate these institutes in the near future. "Maharashtra has done this rating and Orissa government plans to make it mandatory for every applicant to undergo training from a recognized training school. The best practices are being adopted by more states, which is a good sign," said joint secretary (transport) Nitin Gokarn.
Delhi is also the first state which has made it mandatory for all driving licence holders of heavy vehicles to undergo refresher training when they go for renewal. Every year at least 60,000 such licences are issued or renewed in the capital. "All other states must replicate this and the Central government must ask them to follow suit. To make our roads safe, we are also recommending to the Centre to have a zero tolerance policy towards alcohol consumption by bus drivers," said road safety expert and CTM director Rohit Baluja.
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