The motor driving school owners are an anxious lot now. And the thing that is giving them sleepless nights is none other than the proposed ‘Road transport and safety bill’ or RTSB.
The draft of the Bill, which was released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, specifically states that only driving schools which have at least two to three acres of land will be eligible to admit students for driving lessons.
According to All-Kerala Motor Driving School Association, the new rule will benefit the bigwigs while leaving thousands of small-time driving schools in the lurch. “As of now, there are 3,500 driving schools in the state. Most schools don’t have the investment or the ground for imparting driving lessons. Also, tests are held on the roads in the presence of MVD inspectors. As per the new norms, the school is supposed to have its own institute. On the whole, the norms are impractical and cannot be followed by the small-time driving school owners as this will require huge investment. The owners received the licence for the schools based on their eligibility. The new norms will be unfair to the existing owners,” said association secretary K S Cheriyan.
Advocate Jose C, who studied the new draft, said that under the new rules, the schools themselves can grant licence to the new drivers.
“This will cause huge disparity in the quality of the drivers as the licences will be issued by private owners. The Regional Transport Office does not have anything to do with the process as per the framework,” advocate Jose C said.
Yet another negative aspect of the new draft, as cited by the association is that driving lessons should be imparted to a batch only if at least 15 persons register. “It is not necessary that the schools should receive these many number of students per batch,” the association members stated.
From the point of view of the learners, the cost of taking a driving license is expected to escalate from `5,000 to `6,000 to at least `25,000, if the schools have to be upgraded to higher standards.
The draft of the Bill, which was released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, specifically states that only driving schools which have at least two to three acres of land will be eligible to admit students for driving lessons.
According to All-Kerala Motor Driving School Association, the new rule will benefit the bigwigs while leaving thousands of small-time driving schools in the lurch. “As of now, there are 3,500 driving schools in the state. Most schools don’t have the investment or the ground for imparting driving lessons. Also, tests are held on the roads in the presence of MVD inspectors. As per the new norms, the school is supposed to have its own institute. On the whole, the norms are impractical and cannot be followed by the small-time driving school owners as this will require huge investment. The owners received the licence for the schools based on their eligibility. The new norms will be unfair to the existing owners,” said association secretary K S Cheriyan.
Advocate Jose C, who studied the new draft, said that under the new rules, the schools themselves can grant licence to the new drivers.
“This will cause huge disparity in the quality of the drivers as the licences will be issued by private owners. The Regional Transport Office does not have anything to do with the process as per the framework,” advocate Jose C said.
Yet another negative aspect of the new draft, as cited by the association is that driving lessons should be imparted to a batch only if at least 15 persons register. “It is not necessary that the schools should receive these many number of students per batch,” the association members stated.
From the point of view of the learners, the cost of taking a driving license is expected to escalate from `5,000 to `6,000 to at least `25,000, if the schools have to be upgraded to higher standards.
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