You could be imprisoned for providing fake address while applying for a driving licence. City transport department plans to file police complaints against such offenders
You could be imprisoned for providing fake address while applying for a driving licence. City transport department plans to file police complaints against such offenders
Think twice before providing a fake address to the transport department for obtaining a driving licence. The department is contemplating to file police complaints against people whose addresses are found to be false.
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Since January this year, the department has started couriering driving licences to residential addresses of applicants.
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The Real drive:u00a0 Since January 2009, transport department has started couriering licences to residences of applicants. |
The move was started to stop malpractices in the department and to curb the role of touts and also weed out corrupt transport inspectors.
However, transport department officials say despite this move, up to 20 per cent of couriers are turned back because the addresses provided are false.
Commissioner (Transport) Delhi, RK Verma said, "Our next step will be to file police complaints against people who provide wrong address in their application form for obtaining driving licence."
As per the Central Motor Vehicle Act, if motor licencing officers find an applicant's address to be fake, they serve a notice to the concerned person.
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"If the motor licencing officer is not satisfied with the reply of the applicant regarding the fake address, his licence can be cancelled.
But now, apart from these actions, the transport department is planning to a file police complaint against the person who has provided the fake address.
And the person can even face a jail term for this offence," said a senior transport department official.
In Delhi, on an average, 1,500 new licenses are issued everyday and another 1,000 are renewed. But transport department officials say this rate in contrary to the growth of the city's population.
"A large number of migrants from other states apply for licences in Delhi. Most of them use the driving licence as identity proof, while others use it to dupe policemen.
Other documents that can prove a person's identity officially, like passport and voter ID cards can not be obtained so conveniently and in such a short time.
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So many use the driving licence as address proof for obtaining telephone connection and opening bank accounts," said the senior official.
Transport department officials feel many fraudsters take advantage of the fact that there is no centralised database of driving licences.
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"Whenever the police confiscate anybody's driving licence, people prefer to obtain a new licence on a fake address. This is illegal," added the official.
