Loophole in SMS facility of RTO?
Bengaluru, May 15: Transport commissioner Bhaskar Rao has allayed fears that the SMS service being offered by the RTO to track hit-and-run offenders will instead prove to be a blessing in disguise for those keen on ‘tracking’ girls.
The service was launched by the RTO on Thursday to help citizens with details of vehicles involved in hit-and- run cases. Fears were expressed that it would help in conveying personal details especially pertaining to girls.
Anyone can obtain the information on a vehicle owner by sending the registration number to 56006. Within seconds, the name of the vehicle owner and the contact address will be displayed on the SMS sender’s mobile screen helping the public to lodge a police complaint. What is worrying many is the fact that this information could also be easily obtained by a mischief monger.
But Mr Rao brushed aside the fear of the information being misused. He said that only the name of the vehicle owner, the engine number and the chassis number will be provided while replying to the SMS sent to 56006.
“To check how effective the SMS system is, all details of vehicles are being provided for another 10 days. Later, limited information will be provided to the sender and the public need not fret over this,” he said.
The SMS facility was announced by transport minister R. Ashok.
Details of 16 lakh vehicles (registration numbers starting with KA-01, KA-02, KA-03, KA-04 and KA-05) have been stored in the database.
The details of around 70 lakh vehicles will be uploaded in the next eight months. The information on all vehicles which were registered before February 15 has already been uploaded. Vehicles with registration numbers up to KA – 55 will be added shortly, Mr Rao said.
Similarly, the insurance details of all vehicles will be made available. This will help bring insurance fee evaders under the tax net, said Mr Rao.
“After 10 days, those who wish to obtain full information of a particular vehicle can do so it from our official website by providing their e-mail id,” Mr Rao added.
Latest Comments
What is the plan from the traffic police to verify the authenticity of the information requestor? Email and SMS are easy way to misuse. The database is very mich fine and it needs to be available with every police station and not publicaly accessible. In incidents, if people noted down the vehicle number and lodge a compliant, then it is the duty of the police to use the database to trace the owner of the vehicle. It can be misused by criminals as well.
i am very much agree with Balakrishnan comment. Public just need the registration number to lodge the complaint. having name, Engine number & chassis number what the use. definetely this going to be miused. these info need to be provided to the traffic police or in police sation for immediate action.
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