Kathmandu, June 13
It has already been more than two years since the government introduced ‘smart driving licences’ for motorists and motorcyclists across the country. Whereas the Department of Transport Management is struggling to meet the demand for printed licences with its insufficient equipment, traffic police have complained of another issue that has undermined the effectiveness of smart licences.
The major reason behind introducing the new technology in licence system was to control the use of fake licences. However, owing to lack of smart technologies to check genuineness of these permits, people have begun producing fake copies of even the smart cards, according to police.
Currently, traffic police on the streets examine the licences with their naked eyes and send them to the Department for further investigation if found suspicious.
By now, around 400,000 smart licences have been distributed whereas 300,000 new licences are being distributed within next two months, according to the Department’s Spokesperson Tulsi Ram Aryal. But, no traffic police have handhold reader machine, informs Mukunda Marasini, cospokesperson of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division.
Whereas genuineness is one issue, traffic police say they are in problem to record actions taken against smart licence holders.
Previously, police would punch holes onto the licence to inform the number of times they have faced action. But now, they can not punch the smart licence, neither do they have access to the database to record details of the action.
“The Department has not given us access to the server of smart licences. Therefore, we have to send all the details to the Department,” complains Marasini.
