Syed Shemul Parvez :
Irregularities have been controlling the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) for a long time. Consequently, about 1.5 million customers didn’t get BRTA smart cards even after passing of two years.
The embarrassment in taking of photograph and finger print has been a new crux to the suffering of BRTA smart driving license.
Sources said that many days were taken to take fingerprints of the customers of Mirpur, Uttara, Ikuria and Savar regions instead of two or three hours.
But, the BRTA says that the service will be rendered at the designated office only to alleviate customer frustration.
Meanwhile, the victims complained that their smart driving licenses did not match even after two years.
Generally, after passing the driving test, the drivers get the opportunity to drive with the receipt.
However, the BRTA is only extending the validity of receipts as the distribution of smart cards has been stopped for a long time.
According to the BRTA, the World Bank blacklisted Tiger IT, a smart card provider, for corruption in 2019. As a result, Madras Security Printers got a new responsibility to supply 3.5 million smart cards.
Besides, the customers of Dhaka region are facing troubles to give fingerprints and pictures at the same time.
Although these works require 2 to 3 hours, it takes one to two days more.
One customer also complained in a black and white that he did not get the service on time.
Syed Newas, another victim of the service told the media that he had applied for renewal of his driving license in December, 2019. Though the authority changed the date of delivering license thrice; he did not get the license yet.
Journalists were barred from entering the premises when they went to the Madras Security Printers office to search for the fact.
The BRTA says that the smart driving license complication will be removed very soon and fingerprint and photo service will be taken in the specific office.
BRTA has distributed about 35 lakh smart cards since 2011. And about 1.5 million customers are waiting to get a smart card.
