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In 2012, the printer was out of order for months which built up a backlog of 22,000 (twenty two thousand) vehicles without Registration Certificates. When a new printer was finally installed, there was a shortage of smart cards. Once these matters are sorted out, there is a shortage of forms! If you download the form, there is no checklist. Is this done on purpose? This means the babu at the RLA counter who checks the documents will invariably find fault with the application. So one has to come back another day and stand in a queue for hours again. For these glitches there is a solution. The touts who hang around the halls or in the parking lots. For a paltry Rs 500 they handle your documents and get them "passed." When the stock of cards, forms and whatever else may be required is in hand, the RLA stops work due to a power cut. Interesting but not amusing to customers, there is a hastily written hand written notice posted at the entrance saying "RLA closed due to power supply failure". No arrangements for a power-backup are in place. However, the fans and lights do continue to work. Comes the day, not very often mind you, when everything is in order. Smart cards, application forms in the Red Cross folder, the camera works and the printer prints and yes, there is electricity to work all the contraptions. This was the day the supervisor misplaced the keys. Incompetence, unpunctuality, shortage of trained staff, and a complete lack of updated procedures. The RLA is run the same way as it was run thirty years ago. Administration skills are conspicuous by their absence. It is a den of iniquitous babu-crats let loose on a decent, dignified public for the last three decades. And there is corruption. In 2012, money collected at the counters was not deposited in the treasury as per the rules. The staff took it home. The amount was Rs 32 lakh. Its almost two years since the bogey of High-Security Registration Plates (HSRP) was let loose on the motoring public. Nothing concrete is happening on this point. So another backlog. In mid-February, 2014 the RLA announced: "Backlog to be cleared in March"! On March 1, 2014, the RLA extended the deadline yet again. A visit to the RLA office is most depressing. Unswept floors, filthy toilets, the counters and glass partitions have never been cleaned and a very rude and slovenly staff. The Administration is asleep with its eyes wide open. The annual revenue of the RLA is reputedly Rs 90 crore. Yet they cannot afford new equipment, qualified personal, cleanliness. Its time to hand over the functioning to a private firm that is work and success-oriented. Happy Motoring !
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An
agony-cum-punishment that the residents of Chandigarh are subjected to
is dealing with the Registration and Licensing Authority — the RLA.
Here is a department that reeks and exudes incompetence. It has been
this way for the last three decades. It was not always like this but
the deterioration has reached alarming levels today and still no one
pays attention.