Tirupati: The practice of sporting fake stickers on taxis and private vehicles has become prevalent among tricksters plying between Tirumala and Tirupati.
Vehicles with stickers of ‘on government duty’, ‘police’ and ‘press’ are seen rampant here, as these stickers enable the fraudsters to evade police and security checks across the temple town, especially at Alipiri, the entrance of Tirumala ghat road.
It was observed that many taxis were sporting fake stickers. There are some strong objections from various sections that the taxis carrying ‘on government duty’ stickers are getting easy entry at Alipiri check point, without much frisking.
It was learnt that nearly 40 per cent of the vehicles carrying ‘on government duty’ stickers are bogus and it is becoming difficult for the security personnel to find out which one is fake or real.
“We know that the stickers such as ‘on government duty’, ‘police’, advocate’, judiciary’ and ‘press’, pasted on some taxis are fake. Some government or police officials, who visit Tirumala temple, might engage a taxi once in a while and ask the drivers to paste the stickers, based on their designations, to avail protocol entry at the check point.
After seeing the VIP treatment for such vehicles, the taxi drivers take advantage of this and keep the same stickers pasted on their vehicles even after the VIP completes his trip.
By using these stickers, the taxi drivers repeatedly take trips with common devotees and earn more money from them for the VIP treatment given at the check point,” a security personnel at Alipiri said, on conditions of anonymity.
Meanwhile, a traffic police said that, there may be chances that some anti-socials use such stickers to evade police checking.
“They might try to deceive police by exhibiting such stickers and when police ask, the violators fail to produce supporting documents or cards and spell some big shots’ names to get a release. It has become quite common here and there is nothing we can do to curb these practices unless the rules are strengthened,” he added.
Few months ago, the Aandhra Pradesh Red Sanders’ Anti-Smuggling Task Force intercepted a car, which was sporting the ‘Army’ sticker.
The task force had found red sanders logs and nabbed the smugglers who later confessed that the stickers were pasted to evade police checking.
However, though the number of vehicles carrying fake stickers have been increasing by the day, there are strong objections from various sections that the department failed to initiate stringent action on those taxis and private vehicles, carrying the fake stickers.
