7-day working of RTO has not become a reality

At 4:45 pm on Sunday, the RTO office at Sarai Kale Khan wears a deserted look. The gate is locked from inside. There is neither any staff nor anyone from general public to apply for driving license.

The Delhi government had last month directed that the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) will remain open on seven days a week and had also extended the working hours from 7 am to 7 pm instead of 10 am to 5:30 pm.

Vijay Kumar, the guard on duty, points towards the board which still reads 'Sunday Closed', 'second Saturday off'. He is not aware of the new decision of opening of offices on Sundays.

His duty started at 2 pm on Sunday and he says the office has been closed since then. He hasn't seen any staff on duty till now.

Another guard, identified as Ishant, whose duty is inside the office, says that some of the staff came in the morning and since people need online appointment through the Transport Department's website to visit the office on Sundays, the work for the day is done.

“There were few people who came through the online appointment today so after it was done, the officers left for the day,” he said.

At another RTO office at Indarprastha, there is a skeleton staff. The office had 16 online appointments for the day and 14 people had come till evening.

The rest were also scheduled for the afternoon but they didn't turn up.

“The work for the day is done, but according to instructions we have to wait in the office till 7 pm,” said Mukesh Buddhiraja, Motor Vehicles Inspector at the office.

The staff claims that the exercise is futile and not serving the purpose and intention with which it was started.

The move was aimed at helping thousands of people who have to stand in long queues at RTOs every day for getting work done and reducing bribes.

However, according to a preliminary analysis by the office of all the zonal offices across Delhi, there is a mere 9 % increase of people in the extended morning hours
(before 8:30 am) and 1 % inthe evening hours (after 5:30 pm).

The RTO office at Indarprastha has seen only four “extra” people in the entire week during the extended timings. Even on Sundays, very few people book appointments.
“Only 9 % people have benefitted from the decision across Delhi till now and the rest 81 % are following the earlier routine," Mukesh said.

To strengthen the operations of the RTO offices, the government had diverted the staff in the pollution wing of the department so that those who work for 12 hours can come to work every alternate day.

However, the provision is only for Motor Licensing Officers (MLOs) and other senior officials.

Many like Mukesh have been working 12 hours a day with one weekly off for nearly a month now and haven’t received any duty shifts or roster according to the new schedule.