Thiruvananthapuram: Officials in the Motor Vehicles Department continue to ignore the directive issued by Transport Minister K B Ganesh Kumar to clear all pending files within five days. Despite repeated warnings of strict action from both the Minister and the Transport Commissioner, there has been no remarkable improvement in the Department's sluggish pace.

Even in the case of faceless applications—where applicants are not required to be physically present—files are being held up without decisions, and senior officials remain indifferent. Although monitoring responsibilities for file movement have been assigned at various levels from RTOs to Joint Transport Commissioners, the measure has yielded little effect.

The move to transfer files from high-traffic offices to other locations to reduce workload has also failed to benefit applicants. For instance, an application forwarded from the Kollam office to Thaliparamba on June 9 was taken up only after 30 days.

A file related to the issuance of a duplicate registration certificate was retrieved by officials in Thaliparamba just the other day, but no decision has been made so far. Numerous such applications remain stalled across various offices. A section of officials is reportedly trying to subvert the Aadhaar-based faceless system, which was introduced to eliminate middlemen.

Special consideration for middlemen

Applications submitted through middlemen—accompanied by authorisation letters from vehicle owners—are reportedly processed faster. The presence of agents is thus identified through this channel. Allegations have also surfaced that fixed bribe amounts are being demanded for each category of application. Although there are officials who refuse to cooperate with middlemen, it is alleged that they are not receiving protection from their higher-ups.