74 lakh Counterfeit Driving Licences in India?

A study by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the road transport ministry revealed that about 74 lakh licences out of the total six crore might be duplicate. These duplications include not only one person being issued multiple licences but also cases of licences with the same number being issued to different applicants.

The study further found disregard of laws, misguidance by agents and the unorganised RTO databases to be the primary culprits behind this growing problem. Also, people whose licence has been confiscated, are known to secure a licence from a different RTO, thanks to the lack of database integration across RTOs.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Road is working on a new Motor Vehicle Act, which also includes measures to establish a consolidated process to issue driving licences and the maintenance of relevant databases.