Aadhaar, PAN must for registering new vehicles

The Transport Department has made it mandatory for the Regional Transport Officers (RTOs) in the State to compulsorily obtain from vehicle owners details including mobile number, Aadhaar and PAN numbers while registering new vehicles.

On Tuesday, Transport Department Principal Secretary Dayanand Kataria issued a circular to all RTOs to get the data along with registration forms from owners wanting to register new vehicles.

A senior official of the RTO in north Chennai, confirming the receipt of such a circular by mail, said the process of obtaining the data was part of a larger goal of upgrading to the new Vahan software of version 4. He said the personal data to be received from vehicle owners was also to trace the owners of the vehicles for security purposes and to prevent any anti-social activities.

The RTO official pointed out the collection of data for registering new vehicles would start from Wednesday onwards itself.

While a number of residents have still not applied for the Aadhaar in the belief that it was not compulsory, they will now have to scramble to get their cards, as slowly multiple government agencies have made the possession of Aadhaar for transactions.