THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Motor Vehicles Department would do away with agents and middlemen and issue driving licences to eligible applicants on the day on which the driving test is conducted, Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas said here on Tuesday.

Briefing reporters about a review meeting that he had convened here, Mr. Thomas said that all pending applications for licences would be cleared by May 31 and that fresh licences would be issued either on the day on which the test was conducted or sent by post to persons who cleared the test. Officials who attended the review meeting were told that no leniency would be shown to those who failed to do so, he said.

The Transport Minister said senior officials of the department were told to avoid middlemen in order to make the department corruption-free. Meetings would be held at the zonal level beginning next month to review the performance of the department. If the situation did not improve even after that, stern measures would be taken against the officials and employees concerned. Popular committees would be formed in connection with all the offices of the department to monitor their functioning, he added.

Mr. Thomas said the department had taken serious note of the en masse absence of motor vehicle inspectors recently and that similar actions would not be tolerated in future. The officials should discharge their duties promptly. In case of failure to do so, appropriate action would be taken against them. This would be possible only if the people also cooperated with the authorities to dispense with the services of middlemen and not grease the palms of the officers, he said.

Asked to comment on the charge that he was facing the wrath of his own party men for not raising money for the party, Mr. Thomas said his party did not believe in using his position as Minister to raise funds. Neither his party leaders nor the party MLAs would want him to do anything of the kind, he said.

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