dna exclusive: Govandi, Dahisar residents first two to complete rickshaw permit formalities

The process of getting 20,000-odd new rickshaws on Mumbai's roads has finally started in real earnest with a Dahisar resident and a Govandi man being the first two people to complete all their formalities required to become the city's newest permit holders and rickshaw owners.

Nitin Patil of Dahisar filled his papers, paid a host of taxes and fees such as the one-time tax and the registration fees at the Andheri Regional Transport Office. The credit at Wadala RTO went to Ravindra Bhosle, who finished his paperwork around the same time.

The two are among the 12,080 people who have won the permit lottery held for Andheri RTO and 8,080 permits for Wadala RTO. Speaking to dna, Bhosle said that he had already bought a new rickshaw on Holi and had planned to start it on Gudi Padwa. Kamble expressed happiness at the fact that he could be possibly the first to own a rickshaw, nearly 17 years after the issuance of new permits was frozen in the city.

However, from here on the process might not be as fast as the one Kamble and Bhosle faced. Officials said that three factors could delay the process of getting new rickshaws on the roads.

"The deployment of RTO staff for poll duty is of course a problem. But a bigger problem would be for lottery applicants to get the police verification done by the G Branch of the Mumbai police. The department tends to have its hands full during the elections and it is possible that verification of the lottery owners may start after the elections end in May," said a transport official.

Another big problem the transport department is facing is the verification that needs to be done of the academic qualifications of the lottery winners. The state transport department had set SSC as the minimum qualification for people to participate in the lottery, apart from having a public transport vehicle licence and a badge of course. "Now trying to check if a person actually did his SSc from a school so many years ago is not easy. In so many cases these might be village or municipal schools with poor documentation practices," said an official.

Speaking to DNA, Thampi Kurien, general secretary of the Mumbai Rickshawmen's Union said that the process needs to be quickened. "The city needs the extra rickshaws and the transport department should try its best to ensure the lottery winners get their permits soon. At the same time the checking of documents should be done meticulously. It is a challenge," said Kurien.