[darklord]

In a bid to end the menace of indiscriminate doling out of driving licences, a Supreme Court-appointed committee has urged the apex court to come out with a direction that every designated officer will issue not more than 15-20 driving licences a day.

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/A...17112014001063

[Altocumulus]

This is at least one rule which makes sense I believe. There is always just one officer for hundreds of candidates and you can't blame them for not taking proper tests. This will ensure they spend time on each candidate and ensure a proper test; at least they wont have an excuse for doing a proper one.

[jinojohnt]

This also has a flip side - you'll need to renew your Learners License 2 or 3 times before you can actually appear for the Drivers License Test - unless the number of Testing Centers and Officers are increased to a decent level.

[mpksuhas]

^^ I guess this will lead to more corruption and driving without license.
Agree RTO officers like many other government departments work in a short staffed environment. However I guess the solution to that is to increase the man power, instead of curtailing the license issuing.

Regarding safety aspect, I guess it should be dealt by having better test standards.

[libranof1987]

I wonder how this will solve any problem. Officers might just finish off issuing 20 DLs in half an hour and then wrap up their day.

Instead, they should have fixed appointments for each day that you can book online/in person (just as they have it for passport applicants). That way, they can (hope to) look at productivity and diligence.

[anilp]

Does this mean the appointment of more officers? I also hope that Supreme Court comes up with a directive that shows agents the door.

[ajaypjayaraj]

When they incorporate such changes, definitely the question of how to deal with the amount of applications against the new limitation of no. of tests per officer per day would have cropped up in their heads too just like ours. Hopefully they have the solution too. If they are going to let an officer test only 20 candidates per day, I would assume that next step would be to increase the man power. Logically that should be the way to go.

[phamilyman]

The question is that we are trying to build in quality by restricting quantity. Anyone who has ever spent ten seconds inside a RTO knows that it is not a pure tradeoff between quantity and quality.

Trying to solve such issues without an intimate understanding of how people think, and how processes work is a guarantee for failure.

Question is - why should the tax payers foot the bill for this institutionalized stupidity?!

Someone should file an RTI!

[ghodlur]

If this rule is in conjunction with a strict online pre screening test post which only 20 candidates are selected for the driving licence test in a day, then the rule can work wonders. This will allow each DL inspector to ensure the driving licence is in correct hands. Mainly this will eliminate the agent system completely bringing a lot more transparency in the system.

[virgopal]

The following news story may be couple of months old but is very relevant to the discussions
RTO officer had issued 518 driving licences in one day
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...?cfmid=2000000
December 30,2015
BENGALURU: M Jayaram, senior inspector, Jayanagar RTO, who was raided by the Lokayukta on Monday for allegedly possessing Rs 1 crore worth of assets disproportionate to his wealth, was already under a cloud for issuing 518 driving licences in a day, and yet managed to evade any disciplinary action by his department.
In August this year, TOI had exposed how Jayaram issued the licences. RTO commissioner Ramegowda had said they would summon Jayaram soon and investigate by checking with other RTOs on the number of licences they issue every day.
A day after the Lokayukta raid, Ramegowda claimed the enquiry is on and they have sought details from Jayaram. A senior inspector with the Jayanagar Regional Transport Office said Jayaram had shocked everyone by issuing 518 licences on January 9, 2015. Rough calculations showed he issued more than one licence a minute and worked non-stop for eight hours.

As other RTOs confirmed, this should have, by a rough estimate, normally taken 16 working days with eight hours of daily work. "Each candidate takes at least 15-20 minutes to complete all the procedures, including the driving test," other RTOs said.
Jayaram is also in charge of the inspection wing. He's expected to take a decision on issuing a licence after a thorough inspection of driving skills, including signalling and displaying hand signals before starting and halting the vehicle. "On an average, an inspector can issue a maximum of 25 licences a day," another RTO officer said. He pointed out that there are eight inspectors at the Jayanagar RTO, but "it was Jayaram who issued all the DLs that day."
"Jayaram has been serving for a decade at Jayanagar RTO and this is another record," the officer added.Transport minister Ramalinge Gowda said he would look into the matter. "I will contact commissioner Rame Gowda and see what can be done," he said.

[KiloAlpha]

WOW! 518 licenses? I don't think this man ever left his desk that day, just signed off on forms after taking the "fees". And a driving test taking 15-20 minutes including paperwork? I don't think it is possible to properly assess driving skills in that much time. Really, the test itself should be 15-20 minutes, and paperwork is on top of that.

Coming to think of it, the only way (and I have given it some thought) driving tests and licensing in this country will be free of corruption is if you completely remove all humans except the applicant from the picture. Let the full test happen on a simulator, and let Apple handle the encryption of the simulator data & software.