Telangana: RTA pulls a fast one, asks motorists to pay again

Hyderabad: The Telangana RTA authorities have found a new way to fleece the motorists in the state to get more revenues as they are insisting the motorists to file fresh applications for the transactions for which the slots were allocated during the lockdown. This has left the applicants fuming as they argue why they should pay twice for no fault of theirs.

According to sources, the RTA has dumped all the applications filed before lockdown by the license seekers for learning and permanent licenses. The authorities are now asking the applicants to file fresh application paying the required fee.

G Vivek (name changed), a resident of Secunderabad applied for learner's license at the local RTA office. The authorities allocated slot for the learner's license test on March 17. Vivek was asked to come to the North Zone RTA office one hour prior to the slot allocated to him. When Vivek reached the office, the authorities said that all the tests were being postponed and fresh dates with slots will be intimated later. This was the time when there were corona cases and in the meantime, lockdown was announced.

The RTA suspended all the services except taking up the registration of BS-IV model during the lockdown. The services were started on May 7 and when the applicants approached the RTA offices, the authorities said asked the applicants to apply afresh for getting the license. "When I went on March 17, they said we will inform whenever the services get started. When there was no information from the officials, we went to the RTA office but they said I should re-apply for the service," said Vivek.

Similarly, another applicant Shreya also applied for motorcycle without gear and was asked to come for test on March 17. "The officials first did not allow us to enter into the RTA premises and when we argued, they allowed in and suggested us to re-apply for the learner's license. Why should we pay twice for a single service when we are not at fault," said Shreya.

The applicants have to pay Rs 300 for the learner's license and Rs 450 for the permanent license. The Telangana Auto JAC leader A Sathi Reddy said that the government should provide the applicants opportunity without collecting additional money because it was not the fault of the applicants.