THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Protests are intensifying against the statement of Minister K B Ganesh Kumar that the driving school in Malappuram is a mafia. The CITU's allegation is that the remark is racist. The minister has also the same difficulty as many others when heard Malappuram.

'There is a difficulty expressed by some people towards those who wear hats and headdress. The minister may also have that. There are protests across the state against the revised format of driving tests. Why insulting only Malappuram for that? Will strongly protest against the minister's statement. The CITU is protesting and not the mafia. The minister will have other intentions,' Abdul Ghafoor, district secretary of the driving school workers union (CITU) alleged.

The minister said, ‘Driving school mafia groups are behind the protests against the revised format of driving tests in the state. There are such groups in Malappuram. They also have officers supporting them. These officers had earlier embezzled money. Strict action will be taken against corrupt officials. Malappuram R T office embezzled money to the tune of three crores. Action was taken against the officials. The minister said that tax was evaded after making a fake receipt.’ The protests intensified against this. The minister has also clarified that he will not back down from the reforms and will not withdraw from the protests.

Driving school unions have intensified their protests against the revised format of driving tests that will be implemented from today. The protest is by closing the test grounds and not releasing the vehicles for the test. It is reported that all driving school owners and employees in Kerala will go on strike. Driving school owners said that the new tracks as part of the reforms are not ready anywhere in Kerala. The protest is being led by the joint strike committee of driving schools under CITU, INTUC and BMS organizations.

The order is to make strict the driving test, including reverse parking and gradient test from May. For four-wheelers, the 'H' test will be conducted after the road test. 'H' will be allowed to be taken only after passing the road test. Presently, it is vice versa. This is part of making the test strict.

The new reform is also to avoid the criticism that the road test often becomes an 'offering'. If you understand the traffic rules and can drive well, the 'H' test will not be tough. The test will be conducted daily for 60 candidates, including 40 new candidates and 20 candidates who were included in the re-test for those who failed.

Meantime, confusion continues on the revised format of the driving test. The transport commissioner has not yet issued a circular on the new decisions. Due to this, confusion continues among the RTOs regarding how many tests should be conducted per day.