How are 2.6 million licenses being printed in 88 days?

Even after paying the revenue since 2022, neither new nor renewing users have been able to get a license. Service recipients have been forced to carry the burden of paying the revenue for a long time. They are still not sure about getting a license.

Chaitra 24, 2082

Bimal Khatiwoda

How are 2.6 million licenses being printed in 88 days?

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The Cabinet meeting led by Balendra Shah approved on Chaitra 13, and has mentioned that the driver's license will be printed and delivered to every home through the post office within 100 days. For that, it is mentioned that the postal service will be modernized and developed as a 'Government Courier Service'. However, the concern of public service recipients is when will they get the license?.

Even after paying revenue since 2022, neither new nor renewing users have been able to get the license. Service recipients are forced to carry the burden of paying revenue for a long time. They are still not sure about getting the license.

2.6 million licenses will have to be printed and distributed to service recipients within the next 88 days. On Kartik 13, an agreement was signed between the Department of Transport Management and the Security Printing Center to print 1.2 million licenses by Baisakh 12, 2083. More than 300,000 licenses have not been printed yet. The demand for licenses is increasing daily. The Department of Transport Management has said that it is adding about 4,000 licenses daily, including 'emergency', new and renewals. Earlier, according to the data up to the old Magh, 2.7 million licenses were yet to be printed. Now, according to the data up to the third week of Falgun and Chaitra, the number of licenses to be printed has increased to about 2.9 million, said Keshav Khatiwada, Director of the Department of Transport Management. 'The number of licenses is increasing every day,' he said, 'We have extracted all the data, so far the number of licenses to be printed has reached 2.9 million, the number is going up and down after printing and application.' According to him, an additional 397,000 licenses were sent to the printing center on Tuesday for printing.

'After the licenses are printed, they are being sent to the relevant transport management offices through post,' he said, 'There is no problem in providing the data for printing licenses, during the Gen-G movement, all the servers were burnt down in a fire in the office, and it is still a problem because it has not been managed, which is why we have to continue working temporarily.' He said that work is being done to completely solve the problem of printing licenses as per the government's 100-day agenda.

Former Secretary Keshav Kumar Sharma said that with 40,000 licenses printed daily, there will be no problem in printing all of them within the stipulated time. 'There is no problem in printing 2.6 million licenses by mid-Asad, it is understood that everything has been prepared,' he said, 'This is not impossible if the printing center is adequately resourced.'

The government's approved agenda for governance reforms includes printing licenses in 100 days and sending them through the post. That is, how can 2.6 million licenses be printed with only 88 days left? Is this possible? In response to our inquiry, Devraj Dhungana, Executive Director of the Security Printing Center, said, "This is like a factory in an industrial corridor. Work is done in shifts. Currently, 40,000 licenses are being printed daily. Accordingly, 1.2 million can be printed per month. Accordingly, we can print 2.4 million in two months." The printing press is in Panauti, Kavre.

He said that the printing deadline has been set for mid-Asard, saying that some time may be needed for preparations in between. "Licenses are printed even on holidays," he said. "There was no delay in providing data for this from the Department of Transport Management."

He claims that the 1.2 million licenses as agreed upon earlier will be issued by 12 Baisakh. 'A deal has been made to print 1.2 million licenses in the first lot,' he said. 'Preparations are being made to sign a deal for the remaining licenses within this week.' According to him, although fewer licenses were printed than expected in the initial days due to lack of resources, that is no longer a problem. The license issuance service is available through 42 transport management offices across the country. Currently, the Department of Transport Management provides license data to the printing center. The center prints the licenses based on that data and sends them back to the department. Once the department receives the licenses, it sends them to the relevant transport management offices through post.'

'We will print and issue all the licenses by mid-Asar,' said Director Dhungana. 'Rest assured, from 1st Shrawan, no service recipient will have to carry the old revenue receipt.' Currently, all transport management offices are under the provincial government. Only the transport management department is under the federal government. As the license printing facility is not yet under the Transport Management Office and the Provincial Ministry, the department has been coordinating. 

The department only had the license printing machine . The license printing machine was burnt after the department's office in Minbhawan was set on fire during the protest on 24 Bhadra. As a result, the department does not have the machine now . 

The department's proposal is that each transport management office should be provided with a machine, or if not, the provincial ministry should be provided with the machine and arrangements should be made for printing the license . The department claims that the license problem will be resolved after that . Since this work has not been done so far, the work of printing the license is being done through the Security Printing Center .

Bimal

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