Kerala unions call off strike over driving license test after truce with government

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 16 : Driving school unions in Kerala called off their strike against the driving license test in the State after the government agreed to modify some of the directives, State Transport Minister KB Ganesh Kumar said.
The minister said that the government had arrived at a truce with the unions after a meeting with them.
"The strike is over and they all have cooperated with the government... The quantity of the licence is not the issue, the quality of the licence is the issue. We have decided to give good quality education in the driving sector to avoid accidents. This is the first thing in road safety," said the Kerala Transport Minister on Wednesday.
"Driving tests will be very strict and we will record everything in the dashboard cameras. This will ensure transparency," he said.
The unions were protesting against government's directives about installing dashboard camera in vehicles used for learning and testing and the imposition of a ban on a vehicle older than 15 years for the purpose of testing and learning.
Earlier, some unions also moved the Kerala High Court against the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) circular that decreed the reforms but the court refused to stay the circular, which also mandated that only 30 driving tests would be held per day.
After the government modified the directives, it was stated that the dashboard cameras would now be procured by the MVD and placed inside vehicles during a test, and four-wheelers up to 18 years old can be used for testing and learning.