Visakhapatnam: If you are an ordinary citizen in Andhra Pradesh, you’ll have a tough time getting a fancy or auspicious or special registration number for your vehicle. The most popular special registration numbers such as 1, 9, 111, 999, 9999, are reserved for government vehicles used by politicians, or for influential individuals.
Officials of the Road Transport Authority (RTA) reserve these numbers for Telugu Desam leaders and their henchmen, charging them low prices and not encouraging others to participate in the sealed-cover bidding. This means a loss of revenue to the state exchequer. The demand for numbers 1, 9, 999 and 9999 is more than for other fancy numbers such as 111, 222, 333.
To get a special vehicle registration number, one has to deposit Rs 50,000 for participation in the sealed-cover auction, which often garners lakhs of rupees. Not surprisingly, politicians and their henchmen have been using their influence to secure the special numbers at a base price, or just above the base price, particularly for the numbers 1 9 and 9999.
RTA officials allegedly keep the number of bidders down so that the politicians get what they want. A senior officer with the RTA said that not only ruling party MLAs and ministers, but also their relatives and henchmen want numbers such as 1, 9 and 999 for their costly four-wheelers, but don't pay more than '50,000, the basic registration fee for any tier-1 number.
For instance, registration number 9999 was reserved for a TD leader’s friend, for his SUV, at this throwaway price. The registration number 1 was reserved for an MLA’s relative for the same price.
Except in a few cases, the tier-I and sometimes the tier-II fancy numbers are reserved for ruling party leaders and their henchmen, sources said.
In 2016, a businessman from Vijayawada paid Rs 6.03 lakh for the registration number AP16 DH 9999, for his Jaguar. It’s the highest bid so far this year in AP.
In 2015, the owner of a BMW bid Rs 6.4 lakh for the number AP16 DA 9999. This shows how much revenue the government can make if there is no favouritism shown to politicians.
DSP of the Anti Corruption Bureau (Visakha Urban) K. Ramakrishna Prasad said that a surprise raid on the premises of the RTO, Gajuwaka, revealed that the tainted RTO, T. Muralidhar, had issued numbers to henchmen of politicians, without conducting a sealed-cover auction, and taking a bribe for his help. Illegal sale of fancy numbers is one of the major sources of illegal income for corrupt RTA officials, he said.
