The city traffic police have started an educational drive for motorists
Representational image (Photo courtesy: bangalore.click.in)
Chennai: The city traffic police have started an ‘educational drive’ for motorists against the use of unauthorised ‘IND’ number plates on their vehicles and have decided to give two more weeks for vehicle owners to change their number plates.
“Our men are distributing leaflets at traffic junctions asking vehicle owners to change to IND number plates. The educational drive will be there for two weeks as many owners are unaware that they are using fake plates,” a senior police officer said.
As of now, the police have decided not to penalise vehicle owners who have fixed the IND number plates. Many vehicle owners had paid extra to get such number plates fixed on their vehicles, thinking that they were acting in accordance with law. “I paid Rs 1,500 extra to get the IND number registration plate. I was not aware that it was a fake plate when I took delivery last year,” said A. Vasudevan, a resident of Neelankarai and working in a private firm in Vepery.
The Union government has instructed all states to have high security numberplates with unique laser encrypted numbers, security features similar to that of currency notes embedded in it to provide protection from theft and also for easy tracking and identification of vehicles.
However, this system is not implemented in the state so far due to certain issues in finalising tender bids. As of now, carrying such fake plates is an offence. Anybody making such fake plates and selling these will also face legal action, a senior police officer explained.
In January, the Madras high court ordered the Coimbatore police to investigate allegations of fake high security registration plates sold to people without authorisation from the transport authorities. This was based on a petition before it.
( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story
