Hyderabad: The fate of those who fit number plates on vehicles hangs in the balance as the Centre has said the high security registration plates should come factory-fitted from April 1.
The registration plates are fixed at the regional transport offices. The process is being handed over to the showrooms to reduce work at the RTOs as also to remove corruption in the process of separately applying for and securing a registration number.
“HSRP (high security registration plates) including the third registration mark, wherever required, shall be supplied by vehicle manufacturers along with the vehicle manufactured on or after April 1, 2019, to their dealers,” transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Parliament last week.
Mr Satyanarayana, a number fitter at the Trimulgherry RTO said, “We have been fixing the plates for people for many years and have the technology. We do not know what will happen once the vehicles come with the number plates.”
The state has 36 transport offices and each of them has a HRSP point where vehicle owners line up for the plates. There has been no clarity on what happens to these number fitters if the process gets shifted to the manufacturers.
Transport officials have confirmed that there won’t be any activity related to number plates at the regional transport offices from April 1, as they would be prefixed by the manufacturers.
A transport expert said, “As vehicle manufacturing units are not equipped with the technology of high security number plates, they might depend on number plate manufacturing units.”
