Motorists were in for a pleasant surprise when they went to the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Office at Madhavadhara VUDA Colony on Friday. The office has started functioning after more than two months and contrary to expectations that those awaiting registration of their new vehicles and those seeking licenses would make a beeline to the office, there was hardly any rush at the counters.
The registration of new vehicles and other works at the RTA stopped from August 13 as the officers and employees went on a strike as part of the ‘Samaikyandhra’ agitation launched by the AP NGOs Association. On an average around 125 non-transport vehicles are registered through the RTA, Visakhapatnam, and the unit office at Gajuwaka. “The announcement by APNGOs Association suspending the Samaikyandhra agitation came late in the evening. There is also problem of lack of money rotation among the people due to lack of salaries during the two-month agitation. We expect that more would start coming from Monday onwards,” Deputy Transport Commissioner M. Prabhu Raj Kumar said on Friday.
The normal validity for Temporary Registration (T/R), to be issued by the car dealer, is 30 days from the date of purchase of a vehicle. On expiry of the validity of the T/R those driving without the registration could be fined by the Transport officials as also the Traffic Police. It may be recalled that Police Commissioner B. Shivadhar Reddy had announced that the police would be lenient in this regard in view of the strike by the officials and staff of the Transport Department.
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“Vehicle owners cannot be fined for the delay in registration as we are on strike. But, the system (3-tier system introduced by the Transport Department) has a common server and there could be problems in synchronisation. We are yet to receive instructions from the Transport Commissioner’s Office in this regard,” Mr. Raj Kumar said.
Those who have booked their slots to take the test for LLRs (Learner’s License) and Fresh Driving Licenses (FDL) and paid the fee before the commencement of the strike would be given fresh dates for appearance at the tests. The new dates would be posted on the website and those who fail to appear on these dates would have to forego the fee paid, he said.