RTO to start special cell to suspend driving licence

For three years the traffic department has been issuing e-challans to offenders in the city. Around 19 lakh e-challans were generated, of which there were 45,610 offenders who had violated the rules more than five times. 

The list of such offenders was sent to the Regional Transport Office(RTO) to suspend their driving licenses.

The Ahmedabad RTO was only able to suspend 610 licences, which were sent by the traffic department. When the officials were asked about the number, they said that lack of staff and the long procedure were responsible .

Regarding the issue, Ahmedabad Regional Transport officer GS Parmar is going to start a separate cell in the RTO office, where officers will be deployed to work on the suspending the license of repeat offenders.

Parmar said that by the middle of this year they will start the cell, which is to consist of least three RTO officers and two other staff who will work on the suspending process. He claimed that by the end of the year, more than 2000 licences will be suspended by the RTO.

Regarding the process, Parmar said, "We have to go through a legal process. A notice is issued to the offender to visit the RTO. A hearing is conducted by the officials and then the order is passed. The offenders can even appeal to the police commissioner regarding the matter if he is not happy with the verdict."

THE PANEL

• The RTO Cell will have at least five staff, who will only work on the process of suspending driving licences of repeat offenders.
   
• There are around 45,000 licenses, which are yet to be suspended by the RTO