Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada Automobile and Tyre Dealers Association (R) is deeply distressed to learn from a circular issued by Joint Transport Commissioner, e-commerce, Bengaluru dated March 14, 2018, that the Regional Transport Office at Mangaluru and other RTO offices of the DK (Dakshina Kannada) district will not be functioning for a couple of days to upgrade the systems and infrastructure required for Vahan-4 software, said a statement released by Kasturi Prabhakar Pai, President and K. Vilas Kumar, Secretary of Dakshina Kannada Automobile & Tyre Dealers Association (R).
We appreciate and welcome the initiative of the government to upgrade the RTO e-infrastructure with new software which will definitely help all the automobile dealers during registration of vehicles. It will also help to improve the RTO administration and benefit the public in a big way.
However, the month of March being the financial year end, we are compelled to request the state government to postpone the implementation of the software to a later period. Closure of RTO services at this crucial juncture will abruptly disrupt business of the automobile dealers.
It also added that with the financial year end only a fortnight away, all the automobile dealers will be under lot of pressure to achieving their targets. Such being the case, closing the RTO office even for a day will adversely affect all the dealers who have to depend on the RTO office for registration of new vehicles and also for meeting various other legal requirements. Moreover, the decision of closing down of operations at the RTO office has been announced without sufficient prior notice and all the automobile dealers are completely unprepared for the contingency. As Mangaluru is a regional hub for automobile sales, customers of nearby places who are dependent on the dealers of Mangaluru for meeting their needs, will be put to great hardship.
So on behalf of all our member automobile dealers of DK District we hereby request Hon’ble Transport Minister, Govt. of Karnataka, Bengaluru to postpone the Vahan 4 upgrading program to next month and give at least 15 days advance notice to the public to make suitable arrangements. We also request that whenever the Vahan4 upgrading program is scheduled, some alternative arrangements may be done at the Regional Transport office at least to accept Temporary Registration of vehicles.
Being an affiliated member of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), our Association has expressed solidarity with KCCI to pursue the matter with the state government and gain immediate relief. We are confident that the government will take cognisance of our hardship and respond positively to our request.
