The Odisha State Transport Authority (STA) has empanelled about 167 MBBS doctors for issuing medical certificates to the online applicants for driving license (DL) and learner’s license (LL) in the State.

Those, recognized by the Medical Council of India, have registered in a newly developed portal and they would issue medical certificates to the applicants through SARATHI portal, instead of uploading the Form 1A. The details of such doctors are available on the web portal.

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Online medical certificates would be mandatory from 26 January next for all applicants of more than 40 years of age.

According to Joint Commissioner of Transport (Technical) Dipti Ranjan Patra, “a total of 167 doctors have registered on the portal. Any doctor with an MBBS degree or above is eligible to register on the portal. Registration of doctors is completely free of cost.”

The medical certificate of a 40 year old applicant for driving license, learner’s license, renewal, can be presented online in the Form 1 (A) rather than doing it manually.

It was decided to issue medical certificates in Form 1 (A), electronically, under the 5T policy of the Government of Odisha to improve the ease of getting a driving license and to have better user experience and to reduce footfall in transport offices.

Officials say this will also ensure that no one can procure a driving license by uploading a fake medical certificate. In order to make the whole system transparent, a portal is launched, where license applicants can directly get medical certificates without hassle.

As per the provision of CMVR, 1989, a medical certificate in Form 1A is mandatory for the applicant more than 40 years of age and applying for a new learner’s license or renewal of driving license.

At present, the applicants obtain a manual doctor certificate in a paper format and upload it in the SARATHI portal at the time of online application. In this process, the correctness of the medical certificate cannot be ascertained and fake medical certificates are also uploaded.

The registration system has been made transparent to ensure proper medical tests by genuine doctors (MBBS degree holders with registration under Medical Council of India (MCI), said a transport department official.