2.24L serious traffic offences booked, only 2,674 licences cancelled in Tamil Nadu

While Transport officials state reasons ranging from humanitarian grounds to seizure of photocopy licence documents for zero cancellation, there appears to be a serious lack of communication between the police and Transport Department which has led to this lapse.  

Joint Transport Commissioner, South Zone, Manakumar, said, “Cops are seizing photocopies of licences and sending it to the respective RTOs. With a photocopy of the original licence, we are left with only one option of suspending their licences.”

The state has suspended 2,24,810 driving licences between January 2017 and March 2018 for violations including overspeeding, overloading of passengers, drunken driving, traffic signal jumping and using mobile phones while driving. According to State Transport Authority data, it has suspended 39,081 licences and 2,674 were cancelled because of drunk driving cases last year alone.  Similarly, 8,538 licences were suspended and 1,066 cancelled pertaining to fatal accidents in the same period. Under Section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, licence is suspended for six months for the first offence and cancelled for repeat offence. 

City police claim they are sending over 100 licence documents recommending appropriate action on a daily basis. “We send 50 to 60 licences from my jurisdiction daily for suspension and get an acknowledgement from postal services that it has reached the destination, but we are unaware of what the next step is,” said a traffic enforcement inspector requesting anonymity. Since traffic police personnel have been instructed not to demand original licence or Registration Certificate (RC) book, they accept a photocopy or click images of the documents, even smart cards, and send them to RTOs. Another traffic inspector recalled an incident in which he was about to send a repeat offender’s licence for cancellation. “He was ready with a photocopy for the second time because he was sure his licence would not be cancelled and he could continue violating rules,” the inspector added. “A proper system should ensure integration of RTO data with the police department and police personnel should get the previous offences of a traffic violator at a click of a button,” said the inspector.

To monitor the situation, the Transport Department introduced driving licence with Quick Response (QR) Code printed on it which would have details of the licence by using the Quick Response Code scanner, last year. Only 10.40 lakh licence holders have been registered under this new system between 2017 and 2018. The department began the process of computerisation in 1997 which has a complete profile of information regarding 2.20 crore licence holders in its existing system. 

An official attached to the STA, said, “More than 60% licences have to be brought under the new system. The reason is that licence holders approach the regional offices only while renewing it. Only then do we have an opportunity of bringing them under the digital system”.