Excelsior Correspondent
Leh, Apr 12: As ARTO office goes online from the last month, the people of Leh district heaved sigh of relief assuming that all transport related issues such as obtaining driving license, permit renewal, registration process etc would be done at their fingertips thus saving them from standing in long queues at ARTO office.
But, lots of complains have already started pouring on social media alleging that online version failed to process the online payment option so an applicant has to stand in queues at ARTO to make the payment manually. This system is more irritating for applicants as firstly they had to fill the form online then again visit the ARTO to deposit the fee manually.
Some of applicants claimed that online fee payment to ARTO made through some cyber cafes having special user ID & Password but they charged processing fee of Rs.200 per applicant. Applicants Tsewang Dorjay and Tundup Norboo alleged that there seems to be a nexus between ARTO office and some cyber cafe owners to authorize certain cyber cafe to process fee on commission basis.
Refuting the allegation, ARTO Khadim Hussian said that ARTO has not given any franchise to any cyber cafe owners to process the online fee payment and there is no truth in it. He added that some Common Service Centre-Khidmat Centre (CSC) is authorised by Government of India to process variety of online applications on nominal fee and ARTO has nothing to do with it and if any cyber cafe is found to be charging more than prescribed fee one should lodge a police complain rather than making irresponsible comment.
Admitting some problems in online ARTO fee processing Khadim said that he had already taken the issue with Transport Commissioner through video conference and he had assured him to resolve the issue after discussing with higher Authority at National Data Centre at Delhi. Khadim also added that Taxi Union president and Tempo Traveller president also complained about the online payment problems to Transport Commissioner and he assured them to solve their grievances soon.
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