[Mithrandir]

Doing away with the objective tests is completely ill-advised. We Indians are already infamous, globally, for our 'bad driving'. We need to do away with corrupt practices and not the good ones. Doing away with the good practices in the name of corruption seems like a compromise; not a solution. We cannot become tolerant to corruption by making compromises. Government can install cameras in RTO offices. Let there be a video recording of each driving tests conducted by the RTOs. Appropriate fee may be collected from the applicant himself for the purpose. Educational qualification cannot be considered as an eligibility criteria for driving tests. Even the educated people may drive like maniacs on the road. Getting a certificate from a licensed driving school may be made mandatory for obtaining driving license. Well equipped private driving schools with well informed instructors can train the student drivers. One can also make it mandatory for the driving instructors to have certain minimum qualification (such as a minimum 10 years of driving experience without any major accidents).

[P0kerDem0n]

There are two sides to this, and the primary one from Kejriwal being corruption is obviously valid. I'm genuinely not making this up - I'm 35 years old and have been driving for over 15 years now - thanks to corruption.

I never had a 4 wheeler license until Aug 2015. I appreciate this is not the right thing to do, but when I was traveling to the US I was forced to get one so I could drive there. I was very keen on not bribing, I attended the written test after reading everything on a blog entry I could not find again - it's of relevance to the Koramangala RTO if you'd like to google it. I did my LL test at the Jayanagar RTO. The ARTO that signs your application asked me what I did when I went for his signature, I told him and he signed. I was walked into the LL test room and was given a 15 question test to pass, which I thought I did, unfortunately I did not. I'm not joking, I had prepared sufficiently and my aptitude to learn new things and retain them is not bad. But I failed.

I returned after a few days, there was some stipulation that you cannot reappear for 3 days or similar. I met the same ARTO, he recognized me and signed my form again - this time around though, there was NO WRITTEN TEST. He obviously signed differently for the staff to identify I wasn't to be administered a written test again. I got my Learning License the same day. I hired an agent for my Driving License test just because of this experience.

For someone to get through a true test of road safety is different from one's ability to change how Indian licensing authorities work. We must have more stringent measure PRIOR to issuing a license instead of making it difficult to learn to drive. I in principal, agree with Kejriwal. If I can pay someone 1500 rupees to get a license just by reversing and turning right a couple of times, we need a new way to give that out without stopping people from learning to drive.

[sidzzone]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

I'm sorry but I don't see any logical point in your idea of getting rid of the RT Offices.
You say that we need a new type of Office which will be accountable for licenses issued.
The current RT Office already serves that purpose and is already accountable for all licenses issued.
So I fail to get your point.And frankly it just didn't make sense to me.

I beg to differ. The current RTO offices may be accountable for licenses issued - but do they issue based on the driver's awareness of rules and capability to drive safely? The accountability I'm talking about is that - the drivers should be aware of every rule on the road before they even go for a practical test.

Also, today very few actually go to RTOs without an agent. If I'm applying for a license, it should be easy enough for me to go on my own and do the test rather than paying an agent to bribe everyone.

I have seen many people go through something called a "VIP Test", where the driver is just asked to take the car out of the parking and park it back in and they are issued a license. Is this accountability?

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Also you say that there is a hierarchic structure with the current RT Office that we have to go through.
Then what about the new office that you suggest?
Won't there be a hierarchic structure there too?
There should be a hierarchic pattern, for the workflow in any type of office and there is no escape from that.

Every office has a hierarchical structure and I have no complaints there. I recently went to renew my license in an RTO, and I had to get signatures from five different officers - they threw my application on the floor when they got to know that I did not come through an agent. I had to literally beg with them to get their signatures, and that is something baffling. My complaint here is the effect that hierarchy has in an RTO office, where the lower officers are afraid to even help out or talk to these guys.

I don't have a problem standing in queue for half a day, as I can understand there will be a lot of people waiting. But when I experienced something like what I've written above, it is almost demeaning - because I've not taken a shortcut to getting a license, but just tried to get it the correct way.

My complaint is the effect that hierarchy has in an RTO office (also in many other government offices, but hey, the discussion is focussed on RTO here)

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

As long as humans work in those offices, any new type of office won't serve any real improvement.
The corruption would just get transferred from the old office to the new one.
This issue needs to be tackled at root level.Not just at the RT Offices.
It is present in almost all government offices.

I agree - it is present in almost all government offices. But, again, take the passport office for example, it is more efficient and I don't need to fall at anyone's feet. Why can't the RTO be revamped to something like that? I know that passport offices weren't like this before, they've changed now.

I completely agree with you there, corruption has to be tackled at the root level and not just at the RTO offices - but the topic of discussion here is RTO and my humble opinion was to revamp the offices so that there is no space for corruption - that the office is held accountable for every license issued - ensuring that they've done their job properly (testing the driver for the awareness of rules and driving capability) and not issued license based on the amount received.

Again, the suggestions are impractical, revamping an RTO office is not something that can be done easily. But my point here is, RTOs are one of the many government offices where you can see corruption with your eyes.

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Also rather than passing more stringent safety rules as you have suggested, what needs to done is the strict enforcement of the existing road safety rules.
Road safety rules are already there but what we need is widespread awareness of these rules among the drivers, and strict enforcement of these rules by the concerned officials.

Yes, I had mentioned that. Forgive me for not elaborating on the point. The actual rules needn't change as they are quite sufficient. But the fines that are levied should be increased and of course, the enforcement. As I had mentioned before - this topic has been discussed a lot on this forum and I fear it may go off topic on this thread.

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

I feel that the current licensing classes/categories needs a revamp urgently.
Right now, anyone can pass a License test for the geared motorcycle class with a humble M-80, and the next day he is fully eligible to ride a Harley Davidson or a Yamaha R1! Isn't that ridiculous?

Same case with cars too.You pass the test with a Nano, and the next day you can drive around a Fortuner or an Endeavour with that license.

I feel that more distinct sub-classes should be made in all current vehicle classes based on the vehicle's weight, size and engine capacity.

Completely agree with you there. There should be sub-classes of vehicles defined and licenses issued only to those.

The bottom line is, every license holder should be re-certified so that they should be aware of the rules and drive safely on the road. This is not dependant only on the RTO as the rules need to be enfored as well.

But then, in order to ensure that all drivers are aware of the road rules, there has to be a big change in the RTO where there are no agents. For example today in a Coimbatore RTO, If you go through an agent, the learner's license test's answers are marked down for you.

The need of the hour is an office where there is no requirement to bribe the officers, but just pay the fee that is required for the license. Can this be achieved in the present setup of the RTO office? I don't think so.