Kathmandu, May 26:

The process of issuing driving licences here cannot be fool-proof unless the Licence Section of the Bagmati Zonal Office of the Department of Transport Management is equipped with modern technologies, says the chief of the section Arjun Panta. He also expressed concern about the security of employees there.

“Errors can occur in the process of issuing licences as we have to work in a rush all the time. We need experts to check whether a person is posing as someone else and trying to get a licence. We need experts to do that job,” Panta says, citing a recent case in which a driving licence was issued in the name of a man living abroad.

“The existing system is faulty. It should be replaced with a modern system,” he says, adding, “Files have been either torn or worn out.”

“Due to extreme pressure from service-seekers, we are forced to work under great risk. We don’t have adequate infrastructure to cater to all problems of the people,” he says.

Criminal gangs threaten employees of the transport office at times, says Panta. “We receive security threats,” he says, adding, “Over 150 middlemen depend on earnings from service-seekers.”

“Every day, we serve over 300 service-seekers. These people visit the office to give written tests, renew licences, get licences and get copies of lost licences,” says Yadu Poudel, a section officer at the License Section that has 40 employees.

The section has revamped the procedure of issuing licences after the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority arrested a section officer while he was accepting bribes to issue a licence. He urges the licence-seekers themselves to visit the office.

A number of licences have been seized after the licence-holders were found to have cheated DOTM officials. Recently, an elder brother gave trial in the name of his sibling.