INDORE
: Technical glitches have been stalling online work at the new
Regional Transport Office
(
RTO
) for the past few days. Non-functioning of online server has hit all major functions including online tax, vehicle's registration and issuance of fitness certificate, learning and permanent driving licence.
All online and
IT operations
at RTO are being managed by a private firm. However, just in three months the firm has started giving tough time to
RTO employees
as well as visitors with all sorts of goof-ups such as technical snag, power failure and shortage of staff.
Officials say that inconsistent and slow connectivity are the reason behind the facility that replaced the conventional manual procedure turning bane instead of a boon. "When we say that the server is down, people begin to ask how much time will it take. But we are unable to answer them as we didn't know it ourselves. Even when the network is okay, it takes much time to process when we enter details," said an RTO employee on the condition of anonymity.
He further added that sometimes they have to do overtime to complete the daily tasks especially those that cannot be delayed like issuance of permit and fitness certificate.
Sources with transport department said that it has become a regular affair. It goes offline for more than two hours at least once in a gap of two to three days.
"The company is also facing crunch of staff. Initially it was a team of 75 staff to manage the services, however, it has now been decreased to 25," they said.
Every day, on an average, the RTO receives around 5000 applications, of which 60% are for licence and registration of vehicles, while rest 40% percent applications are for permit and fitness. Speaking to TOI, deputy transport commissioner (Indore division)
Sanjay Soni said, "The firm's functioning is hampered by power failure and we have already written its administration to make arrangements for power backup."
Clear instructions have been issued to solve the problem on immediate basis.