KUWAIT: Kuwait police canceled around 32,000 driving licenses held by residents from the beginning of January to the end of October 2021 for not meeting the required conditions or for being obtained illegally, an interior ministry official said. Meanwhile, authorities revoked 2,400 licenses from citizens who have mental or vision impairments, most of whom are males, Head of Public Relations and Traffic Awareness at the Traffic Department Colonel Nawaf Al-Hayyan said.

"The Traffic Department is strict in issuing driving licenses after linking its database with other state department including Residency Affairs Department, Public Authority for Manpower and the Public Authority for Disability Affairs," Hayyan told Al-Rai Arabic daily in a report published yesterday. "This helped tighten the noose on those who previously received licenses, some changed their professions or lost one of the conditions that made them eligible to acquire a driving license."

Blocks were placed on resident students who received licenses but after finishing their studies, failed to hand them over as they are required to do. The students will not be able to renew their residencies or get a work permits until they hand over the licenses, he explained.

Meanwhile, Hayyan revealed that the number of licenses issued to residents from January 1 to October 31, 2021 dropped by around 43 percent compared to the same period in 2020, as around 41,000 were issued this year compared to 72,000 last year.