Sporting black badges, Transport Department employees staged a protest at their respective offices on Monday as technical snags surfaced yet again in the department's online service resulting in a lot of inconvenience to applicants. At some offices, the service was shutdown completely for couple of hours.
“Technical glitches are now turning into a daily affair. Every time, there is a snag, we are facing the applicants' wrath. Despite repeated requests, higher authorities have failed to fix snags. Hence, we have decided to stage a protest. We will be forced to go on strike if the snags continue,” said I. Raghu Babu, president of Transport Department Non-Technical Employees Association. The staff also urged higher authorities to fix recurring snags in the online service before introducing three-tier online system which enables applicants to obtain licence and other certificates online from anywhere. “We are not against III tier system but issues like improper application design, frequent breakdowns, display of incorrect fee for different transactions, etc. should be sorted out,” said Mr. Babu.
Applicants at Secunderabad, Malakpet, Uppal, Nagole and other Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy had to return disappointment due to the glitches even as “sorry for the inconvenience” boards were put up at the entrance gates.
A majority of transactions, including driving licence tests, renewal of permits, issue of fitness certificates, renewal of licences, etc. could not be taken up. “It's a recurring problem causing inconvenience to several applicants, including auto, bus and lorry drivers. If the temporary permits are not renewed on time, drivers will lose their livelihoods,” said A.P. Motor Drivers' Welfare Association secretary M. Dayanand.
