When Kaleemullah, a gemmologist, went to renew his driving licence at the Koramangala Regional Transport Office (RTO), his request was rejected. The reason sent him and transport officials into a tizzy: his driver’s licence had been registered in someone else’s name.
“I have had the licence since 1986. I was shocked that the same number had been given to someone else,” he said.
He got the Jayanagar RTO – where both licences had originally been issued, for the Koramangala RTO had not yet been established – to pull out documents, and officials realised that both licences had been genuine.
After running from pillar to post to prove that his licence was indeed genuine, the Transport Department relented. Now, his licence number ends with (a) – to differentiate it from the other licence holder.
Calling this a one-off-case, Rame Gowda, Transport Commissioner said issues in manual entry two decades ago had caused the same licence number to be issued to two persons. “We have ordered an inquiry, and action will be taken against the case worker in the Jayanagar RTO,” he said, adding that the worker had been sent a notice.
He claimed the introduction of computerisation had made errors such as this “impossible”. “Now, even if an initial is wrongly input, the smart card is rejected,” said Mr. Gowda.
(Reporting by
Mohit M. Rao)
