the goan I network
MARGAO
Protesting against "exhorbitant" charges levied for issuing smart card and its renewal on occasions by RTA, lorry owner Franky Gomes demanded the roll back and reverting to the old rates.
Briefing mediapersons after his meet with the Assistant Director of Transport, Prakash Kholkar in Margao, Gomes claimed a fee of Rs 880 is levied for the smart card and also at the time of effecting any changes in the same.
Besides the demand for a roll back of this hike to the earlier Rs 100, Gomes also demanded that such revised smart cards be delivered to the lorry owners on the same evening as on the date of submission.
He said he would meet with opposition leader Babu Kavlekar after Ganesh Chaturthi in case the demand is not met.
Reacting to this demand, Kholkar told mediapersons that the smart cards are issued as per government directives after feeding the data from the manually issued vehicle RC books into the RTA systems. Kholkar said a fee of Rs 400 is levied for issuing a revised smart card upon fitting the mandatory Speed Governors to the lorries.
"We charge fees as per government directives," he remarked, while ruling out the recording of such revisions in the old RC books. He also claimed that the smart cards with the revised data are "promptly" issued to the lorry owners. "As per government directives, we have to issue everything in smart card form," Kholkar informed.
