Monday, 19 November 2018 ,
(Nepalese Voice)- The Consulate General of Nepal to Victoria, in association with VicRoads hosted Nepalese Driver’s Licence Recognition Evening for community members on Monday, 19 November 2018 at the office of the Consulate General of Nepal to Victoria.
The program aimed to conduct the information session in order to help the Nepalese community members gain a better understanding of how they can receive recognition for their overseas driver’s licences in Victoria. In addition to this, the program also intended to provide a better insight to road related issues and general safety concerns.
The 2-hour long program had representatives from VicRoads, Victoria Police and the office of the consulate general who gave some really informative presentations, discussing about driver’s licence authentication and conversion in Victoria as well as sharing their own accounts on the importance of safety while riding on Victorian roads.
Representatives from VicRoads, Steven Socha and the Victorian road management authority, Rhiannon Rogers highlighted how recent events had led VicRoads to conduct more rigorous testing of ID for foreign nationals. They also discussed how VicRoads was committed to customer service as well as community engagement. Steven, who is from the overseas licence review team, highlighted the four-step process to reviewing Nepalese driver’s licence and discussed important documents required to receive recognition from VicRoads to drive on Victorian roads.
Parsuram Sharma-Luital, from Victoria Police, attended the event and spoke about how he and his team engaged with emerging communities in Melbourne and Victoria to teach them of the importance of respecting local authorities. Andrew and Dinesh, uniformed police officers, then spoke about the importance of road safety and what to do in case of emergencies. The presentation was very informative and covered a whole range of topics.
Hon. Consul General Chandra Yonzon then concluded the program with a brief note on what the consulate could offer Nepalese community members in terms of assistance, in achieving recognition for Nepalese driver’s licences in Victoria. The Consul General also called for patience from the community members, asking them to allow both VicRoads and the consulate to deal with the vast requests for assistance coming in at the moment. He also reaffirmed the consulates’ commitment to assisting the Nepalese community.
After the formal program, the informal interaction session was held as Edward Wright, MC of the evening facilitated a question and answer session towards the end of the evening. Overall, the evening was a success and was attended by over seventy people. The speakers were thanked and presented with hats from Nepal as a token of love and appreciation.
