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30% Of Driving Licenses In India Bogus, Says ‘Embarrassed’ Minister Nitin Gadkari

While speaking at the Road Safety Conclave, the Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that increasing penalties is likely to have a positive impact as people will hesitate to violate traffic rules. Without penalties it is tough to get people to take road safety norms seriously, he added.

Edited by: Shuchi Shukla | December 11, 2017 1:15 PM | Road Safety Week


New Delhi:
A third of the driving licences in India are fake, Nitin Gadkari said today, admitting that it was “embarrassing” for him to admit it as the country’s Road Transport Minister.

“30 per cent of the licenses in India are bogus. It is embarrassing for me to state this as a minister,” Mr Gadkari said at the Road To Safety Conclave, a joint initiative by NDTV and Diageo.

He added, “We are pushing for intelligent traffic systems which will enable us to immediately track, real-time, when there is a traffic violation.”

Admitting that there are gaps in road safety measures, Mr Gadkari said, “We need to identify black spots. We need to improve road design. This is our responsibility.”

Also Read: The Road To Hell: India’s Most Dangerous National Highways

The minister hinted that the government may take tough measures to ensure that rules are followed. “Increasing penalties is likely to have a positive impact, without which it is tough to get people to take road safety norms seriously,” he said.

“We need to modernise and computerise our systems with the latest technology. This is something we are trying our best to implement,” he said emphasising that the move will help end corruption.

“People will automatically be informed about their violations and the fines to be paid, digitally, reducing interface with officials,” Mr Gadkari said.

On the proposed amendment of the Motor Vehicles Act – which he called ‘outdated’ – to enable tougher action, the union Minister said, “if all goes well at a meeting on January 27 then I need to take (the proposal) to the Cabinet and then to parliament.”

Also Read: How Effective Will The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill Be In Making Indian Roads Safer?

In a democracy, he stressed, “we need to take everyone on board.”

Besides strict norms, the amendments focus on the safety of the road users, road accident victims, stricter driving licensing norms and penalties for law violators.

Also Read: What India Can Learn From Other Countries

23 Comments

  1. Apple

    Dont bother boss. Opposition and biased media will start screaming about “public inconvenience” if you go after the fake license guys. If you do not go after them then they will say you did nothing. This is what they did for demonetization as well. Their slogan is simple “we will criticize if you act. We will criticize if you do not”. They have taken the word “opposition” literally. lol

    Reply
  2. A Jagannadha Rao

    Very good initiative. Strictly to be implemented for the better future of India. Obviously states will deny as RTA is one of the department of state with corruption.

    Reply
  3. Visu

    India is taited with black…black money, black licences, black bankers, black politicians etc. It is not that black is a the absence of colour but Indians give credence to white, a colonial mindset that made everything not white bad and ugly by calling it black.

    Reply
  4. Manoj

    Cancel all the licenses, and and say, over a year’s time force everyone to take new licenses by giving a written and practical test. Such test should be conducted free of cost by the RTO. And written tests should be monitored digitally and practical using camerized tracking to ensure that they are genuine. Only this will guarantee (to a great extent) that those 30% give a test of some king, and the remaining 70% will have a better qualification.
    Re-licensing is the only solution!

    Reply
  5. raj

    Sir, I have a suggestion…

    Please ‘de-licence’ .. you can give it a fancy name like ‘De-Lic’….. (sick!)……. cancel all the licenses overnight in the attack against bogus… call all licenses back and sit and check…. till that time there would be a ‘minor inconvenience’ of no vehicle on the roads.. no business, no treatment, no ambulances etc…

    Thats okay…. we all are honest and patriots and it would be proved by this sacrifice…

    Come on..

    Reply
  6. Pradosh

    We need to invest in a proper road surveillance system, integrated with the transport department to identify and penalize violators. We also need to strengthen the integrity of the Licensing system. This can’t be taken lightly any more. Instill the sense of responsibility in road users. Understand the risks involved from not doing so. This is serious.

    Reply
  7. RTO

    They are bogus only because you make the license procuring part cumbersome. Make it simpler with scientific tests and then see how people will take the legal route to get their licenses.

    Reply
  8. Vasudeva

    I would say 90% are bogus. I know of a person who has a driving license but doesn’t know which pedal is brake and while is accelerator. I am not kidding.

    Reply
  9. MYINDIA

    Mr. Gadkari will be glad to know that more than 99% of legal licence holders don’t have any idea about traffic rules. When taking driving tests they are not at all told to be acquainted with rules – just they are asked few questions and the test is finished. Further, lack of traffic discipline and political backing encourage drivers to beak rules, if they know a all. I will not be surprised if any of the politicians/ministers know the traffic rules well enough. We must learn discipline and observance of rules from western countries or even our nearer countries – Singapore and Japan – few of the very well disciplined countries.

    Reply
  10. Ravi Bopparaju

    Looks great !
    Like all those fake Licenses, we also have some meagerly some ‘carry forward’ regulations which are actually harmful, vindictive and also abhorable.

    When can our stupid ( what else we can call when my huge cash gets struck for 8 days in a failed transaction @ ICICI ?) nation be called to terms?

    ex… Under Hyderabad road conditions, wearing a Helmet can actually be something like signing a death warrant. How can a Apex court ask people to Commit suicide? Is this democratic? Gosh!!! Where is Trump ?

    Reply
  11. Raju

    First try to build pothole free roads (by cutting down your t ender commisions), properly marked speed breakers. Only motive of modi government is to make money through more and more penalties and keep blaming previous regimes for poor infra.

    Reply
  12. Vasudeva

    Sir, My humble request is to get some videos out on you-tube that teaches people to drive. The institutions that teach driving are only brokers to get licenses and unless we get videos out in public that show what is driving, we will not be able to educate our people. Unless, we take this thought out of our people’s mind that driving is only moving the vehicle from point A to point B, we cannot get INDIA to drive.

    Also, I would suggest that these videos are made mandatory at these driving at these driving institutions for the instructors and get an open exam for becoming instructors (not run by Police – leads to passing through bribing).

    Reply
  13. Tamilan

    RTO Offices are one of the FULLY Corrupt govt offices in the country. Income Tax dept must investigate all the RTOs. Fix the root cause not the result.

    Reply
  14. Dev

    Automatic monitoring is highly ineffetive, this was done in Hyderabad , for example normally it takes 10 seconds to cross a signal while turning right but during peak hours people merge from 2-3 lanes into one lane and it takes 30-40 seconds to cross a signal but within 10 seconds signals turns to RED and people are caught in between as violators. Timers dont work propelry It s horrible to simply put. In my view most violations happens not in signals but on roads i see atleast 10 people everyday using phone while driving, atleast 10 people coming on wrong side in full speed, 5 people in a bike… bikes driving like suicide bombers and jumping in front of cars and buses.. this needs a cultural and mindset change high penalty will not help as your automatic mechanisms are not good

    Reply
  15. CHANDER

    Finally our Transport Minister found about the bogus. Take your own time to fix the system and bring the people who were accountable for this.

    Reply
  16. VENKI

    Aadhar link all licences to ensure no one has a duplicate licence with him/her. Those who do not link their licence with Aadhar, cancelled their licence, let them apply afresh.

    Reply
  17. Kevin

    Wonder how he found that out.And so now what – a late night declaration that all driving licenses are banned and nullified.Get into the queue to get a proper one ?? Problem is only with the govt officials and we usually pay for all the problems they create.If the RTO’s conduct the tests properly and dont take bribes,then it would have been so safe and good.

    Reply
  18. SNTSH

    As in UK/Germany/UAE or any other developed country there is always parking place on side of road. While in India when one vehicle stops all following vehicles have to stop.

    At T junction no body bothers to see left and right of main road before entering main road.

    lanes are changed without looking left and right through side mirrors.

    People jump the signals

    No safe distance is maintained

    Driving schools do not teach the saftey rules

    There should be a subject in school level for Road transport safety,

    Officials, Road design Engineers should have study tours in UK / Germany/UAE for their road design and quality of work

    Reply
  19. masterPlan

    Including Feku’s licence….All forged party…of forged people…

    Reply
  20. Shah

    “30 per cent of the licenses in India are bogus. So we have to be ready for Delicensization?

    Reply
  21. Brijesh Singh

    Mr. Nitin Gadkari,

    I am really pleased by your views and actions you are trying to do. I have full faith in BJP Govt.
    I have one request if you can implement that strictly. On the national highways 99% trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles don’t follow the guidelines at all. I believe they should be on the far left lane but they don’t care because there is no fine or ticket or anyone in the state department cares about that. So please, do take some strict action about that. I am sure you might also have seen it.
    Finally, You can make the best roads but without the system the purpose got defeated.

    Thanks

    Reply
  22. Varun

    Best solution- Redo all the driving licenses with the use of software systems that can detect and flag any manipulations by officials or agents

    Reply
  23. akki

    Once we move from one state to another it is always difficult to have correct papers. Like noc then name plate change and other things…plz make it common across India. .

    Reply

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