Since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal launched faceless services initiative last Wednesday, the transport department has received around 6,000 — a daily average of almost 850 — applications for learner’s licences.
While a majority of the applicants were successful, over 600 failed their tests. According to the transport department records, 5,948 applications for the issuance of learner’s licences were received by the department between August 11 and August 18 (9 a.m.).
A senior government official said that as many as 5,341 applicants, who had applied for these licences from the comfort of their homes, had been issued learner’s licences during the period. As many as 607, however, did not make the cut.
Gift to citizens
Terming it a gift to the citizens of Delhi in the run up to the country’s 75th Independence Day celebrations, Mr. Kejriwal had on August 11 launched faceless services related to the transport department.
According to the government, the programme would initially cover 33 major transport-related services covering almost 95% of the applications usually received by the department with more services to be added to the basket soon.
According to the transport department, nearly 2,000 applications for driving licence and registration certificate-related documents were received by it on August 15 despite it being a national holiday.
As many as 1,489 driving licence-related service requests and 462 registration certificate requests were received on August 15 in addition to 556 grievance messages received through the department’s WhatsApp chatbot and 1,387 through helpline number 1076.
Online push
According to the government, a significant majority of services offered by the department can be accessed online with only two requiring one to come to the office: giving a driving test and getting the fitness of vehicles checked.
Four RTOs were closed last Wednesday: IP Depot, Vasant Vihar, Sarai Kale Khan and Janakpuri. Institutional restructuring was also being undertaken at RTOs with the department having restructured its field functioning and three Deputy Commissioners having been deployed at Surajmal Vihar, Sarai Kale Khan and Dwarka covering all zones in Delhi, the government stated.
According to the government, the department will now provide its public services in a faceless manner dispensing with the requirement of a physical visit to offices. Physical interaction will be limited to the driving skill test conducted at 13 fully automated driving test tracks and fitness tests of vehicles.
Before the pandemic, approximately 30 lakh services were being provided to citizens online annually. As of August this year, Delhi was the first State in the country to go faceless, replete with e-Sign and Aadhaar-based authentication and the first State to provide e-learner’s licence test through AI-based facial recognition (feature mapping), the government said.
Currently, 33 services which account to 95% of total services under the following categories are completely faceless: driving licence and related services, vehicle registration and related services, permit related services. Remaining smaller services will also be made faceless in the upcoming months, according to the government.
