Aman Zutshi
Regional Traffic Officer Jammu Pankaj Bhagotra on Sunday claimed that they held a meeting recently with J&K IGP traffic Bhim Sen Tuti and reached to a conclusion that the e-driving license will be considered as valid just like on-line traffic challans.
Replying to a media query regarding much awaited hard copy of driving licenses in J&K, Regional Traffic Officer Jammu Pankaj Bhagotra, said,” We are heading towards green India and motorists don’t need to carry hard copy of driving license”.
“India govt has issued guidelines to download e-driving license through Digilocker. If someone violates traffic rules they get virtual traffic fines then why not J&K traffic officials accept virtual driving license”, he said.
“We recently held a meeting with J&K IGP traffic and their staff and it has been established that e-driving license will be considered as valid”, he added.
Replying to shortage of printed DL, RTO Jammu Pankaj Bhagotra, said “We had some tender issue due to which we couldn’t issue tenders and I assure you that after 3-4 days we will start backlog of driving licenses, but at this time we have more than 1.3 lac DL pending and to clear this it will take one and half month”.
“We appeal local people to update their mobile numbers on our portal so that they get notifications on their numbers instead of others”, he further added.
“I appeal people to obey traffic rules and also appeal to parents to not give driving permission to minor children”, he appealed.
Motorists across the J&K UT suffered big impact when recently chip-based driving licenses (DL) as well as vehicle registration certificates (RC) were not issued to them due to shortage of printing chips.
During most of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, disruption in the supply chain and the Russia-Ukraine war caused a shortage of chips and hence, Smart Card drivers’ license were not issued to motorists in J&K and many parts of India.
