Tarini Puri, TNN | Dec 16, 2014, 06.47AM IST
PUNE: Companies in the radio taxi industry woo commuters with catchwords like safety and reliability, but may have dubious drivers in their employ. They are now under pressure to check their background, but the system to conduct such checks is pockmarked.
Police officers and transport authorities keep dinning that since these companies are into public service, they cannot remain indifferent or lax about the verification process.
But the absence of a centralized database of licensed commercial drivers and their antecedents means no cab service company can be entirely sure about their credentials. While many cab firms claim to be doing everything to comply with the police directives to speed up the police verifications of whom they employ, the process is not picture perfect.
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Experts said there is lack of coordination between licence-issuing authorities, police and the criminal justice system within cities and across the country. A thriving network of agents, touts and even individuals who agree to offer 'guarantee' for others for a price mean a driver facing criminal charges in one city or a state can easily obtain an entirely new identity and matching documents in another.
The lacunae in the police verification system means the history of a criminal in one city does not reach those checking for it in another. A stronger all-India verification process is needed and the government must speed up the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems, said retired police officers.
Rajendra Sonawane, retired additional director general of police, Pune, said, "Neither is there uniformity in issuance of driving licences, nor do we have any centralized police records or communication between agencies. Police verifications are done in a lethargic manner. A database of the criminal justice system, police records and biometrics of all drivers should be compiled and made available online. Unless this happens, verification of credentials is difficult."
Companies said they will to do all for the safety of their clients and speed up verifications. Anand Subramanian, director of marketing communication at Ola, said, "We have already initiated thorough background verification checks for every driver on our platform and are working with the local police authorities to complete it. We conduct our own checks including verifying the drivers' licence, car ownership documents, taxi permit, bank account and PAN card."
Delays in police verifications is common, said Arun Kharat, founder director of Wings Travels Management India Pvt. Ltd. "With drivers in Pune coming from neighbouring districts like Sangli, Satara, Karad and Ahmednagar, police verifications take as long as two to three months. The status of some files is not clear even after a long wait. We don't hire such applicants," he added.
One way would be to set up a central database, said Siddhartha Pahwa, chief executive officer, Meru Cabs Co Pvt Ltd. "We urge the regulators to formulate a central database of all commercial licence holders and link it to their Aadhaar cards and criminal records to instantly identify the black-listed ones. Cab operators should have access so that a driver terminated by one should not get hired by another," he added.
Sanjay Patil, deputy commissioner of police, foreigners' registration office (FRO), and in charge of the verifications said, "We have made it mandatory to link the Aadhaar numbers of all applications for their police verification so that their antecedents can be checked. It is a lengthy and time-consuming process, but unless companies get a clearance from us, they cannot hire drivers. This we hope will mitigate all the problems."