Server Down, Wire cuttu aaghidhe, innu 5-hour aaguthe
- Confusion, chaos, and official apathy at the RTO (East) Kasturi Nagar Bangalore-43
Bengaluru: This was the information that came out from the biometric capturing room at the office of the RTO (East) Kasturi Nagar Bangalore- 560043 on October 28, 2019. The long queue of people that had gathered outside even before the office opened at 10:30 when the official timing is 10:00 AM was in for a disappointment after waiting in the queue to capture the biometrics for Driving License and the clock was ticking past 11:30. Many applicants left the premises in frustration. There was no official communication from any official other than the home guard lady making the rounds and informing the people in the queue. There are also no proper signs to guide the applicants to the various counters. The applicants for DL are under the sign for Learners License and the Biometric capture room signboard is somewhere else and the actual activity happens in another place. Can things be streamlined and straight forward.
This raises many questions and in this age of technological advancement, this is a lame excuse. The biometric capturing is outsourced to a private entity and this is a big lapse on their part and somebody needs to be held accountable for this goof up. There could be other reasons and people suspect that the server is blamed to cover up the lapses. Possibly it could be even a shortage of staff considering that it is a festive season. Mr. Mohammad, Defence personnel in uniform, who had accompanied his daughter for a driving license was disappointed that having taken time off from work he was unable to complete the procedure of biometric photo capture at the RTO.
Mr. Noel, another applicant, was wondering why when the focus is on e-governance in all government departments why is that the process of applying for a Driving License online is ridden with roadblocks. He said that he experienced great difficulty in making the payment online and had to make the payment in cash over the counter. He added that the https://sarathi.parivahan.gov.in/ interface is not user friendly and it is ridden with bugs. He is wondering whether the e-governance department of the government or the IT service providers do any regular monitoring of the portal. The contact numbers provided on the portal for technical problems Sarathi, National Transport Project. Phone no: 0120-2459169 and numerous emails sent out to them at E-mail id: helpdesk-sarathi@gov.in was futile as there was no acknowledgment or reply.
The above experiences of the people leaves them aghast as to what in the name of technology is happening in the Government Departments. We made numerous attempts to reach out to the PRO of RTO (East) the calls were not received either on the official mobile number (94498640037) or the landline numbers. This leaves everyone wondering about the purpose of these official contact phone numbers if they are not working or attended to.
Another applicant who was in the queue for the Biometric capture Suresh tried to contact the Sakala Helpline on 080-44554455 and is disappointed that under the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens all that he heard by the call center executive is that the RTO phone number is not going through and tomorrow being a holiday the applicant was told by the Call Center Executive to call up on Wednesday and no complaint was registered. This again leaves people wondering about the tall claims made by successive governments and the department on their website about the prompt services delivered by the government departments. The higher officials listed on the Sakala Website sakala.kar.nic.in were not reachable.
It is time that the Honorable Minister Shri Suresh Kumar who is in charge of Sakala services Govt. of Karnataka order an investigation into this matter and fix these loopholes and take action against the errant officials for failure in implementing e-governance. One keeps waiting for the official version for the chaos in biometric capture on October 28, 2019, at the RTO (East). It is strange to hear in this digital India that- Server Down, Wire cuttu aaghidhe, 5-hour aaguthe. Is the Government and the concerned minister Govt. of Karnataka listening? Time for action and no more lame excuses.
