Cool! Get your licence in absentia!
Imagine your driving licence landing up at your doorstep without you having to struggle in front of a Regional Transport Officer to draw an Eight with your two-wheeler or attempt a reverse turn before obtaining your car licence.
All that you need is to pay Rs 1,800 to a broker, reveals our respondent from Adilabad. The only time he ever stepped into an RTO office was for his photo to be captured when procuring a Learner Licence. His permanent licence landed at his home 45 days later.
Many driving licence holders across the country wrote to us to state that they got their licence even when not present just by paying sums ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 to an agent with contacts in the office. While some regret having paid the bribe, some appeared to brag about their success in obtaining something without even lifting a finger for it. This is one such report: http://ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/i-dont-know-how-drive-car-i-am-having-lmv-license.
According to recent statistics by the International Road Federation, 1, 19,860 people are killed in road accidents every year in India, the highest in the world. From 2003 to 2010, the number of fatalities have shown a 42% increase.
Just goes to show the huge cost the country faces in terms of human capital for the tiny sums of money pocketed by RTO or agents.
By Manishka Soorya