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Beacons of entitlement return to Uttar Pradesh roads in a new avatar
Nearly a decade after the Centre’s ban, bureaucrats and dignitaries are increasingly using multi-coloured red-blue-white lights, in varying shapes and designs
Nearly a decade after the Centre imposed a countrywide total ban on red and blue beacons to eliminate the deep-rooted and much-criticised VIP culture, the same lights have returned fast to the Uttar Pradesh roads, albeit in a new avatar.
Officers across departments as well as many political dignitaries are increasingly using multicoloured red-blue-white lights, in varying shapes and designs, ranging from long bars to small oval and triangular units, as substitutes for the beacons.
Meant strictly and exclusively for notified emergency services, these devices are once again reviving the same sense of entitlement once symbolised by beacons, popularly known as ‘ laal-neeli batti’.
“Multicoloured lights, permitted only on vehicles such as ambulances, fire tenders and police emergency response units, are now being openly used by officers who have no operational requirement for them much in violation of the Centre’s 2017 notification,” said Gangaphal, a former additional transport commissioner and legal expert.
“The lights, while not technically beacons, serve the same purpose like clearing traffic, asserting authority and projecting status,” he added.
Such misuse not only defeats the very purpose of the beacon ban but also poses safety risks by confusing motorists, who are unable to distinguish genuine emergencies from routine official travel.
Modi govt scrapped beacon
provision from MV Rules
In a major step to dismantle VIP culture on roads and deal with rampant and uncontrolled misuse of red and blue beacons, the Modi government amended the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR) by removing provisions related to red beacons altogether.
The amendment also retained with the Centre the exclusive authority to designate duties linked to emergency and disaster management, for which multicoloured lights could be allowed. The revised rules came into effect on May 1, 2017, formally ending beacon usage nationwide.
Vehicles permitted to use multicoloured
lights under 2017 notification
Apart from those of the police (for maintenance of and order), other duties that the Central government has declared as emergency disaster management work are duties by defence or paramilitary forces, tasks relating to fire and pertaining to management of natural disasters including earthquake, flood, landslide, cyclone, tsunami and manmade disasters, including chemical and biological disaster.
“In pursuance of powers conferred under sub-rule 4 of the rule 108 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, the Central government hereby specifies that the vehicles on office duty which are designated for the emergency and disaster management duties may be allowed to use multicoloured red, blue and white light on its top,” says the notification issued by the Union transport ministry.
“The multicoloured light shall not be put to use when the vehicle is not on the designated duty,” clarified the notification.
A bureaucrat requesting anonymity said that the notification was very clear that the use of multi-coloured lights was limited to only certain vehicles, that too when they were on the designated duty. Police vehicles can use these lights during maintenance of law and order only.
“However, what is happening on the ground is that officials—from station house officers to senior police officers and from tehsildars to top bureaucrats—are routinely moving in vehicles fitted with multi-coloured lights, sometimes even private ones, for daily travel between office and home,” he said.
He said the transport department, which was mandated to enforce the rules, had itself emerged as one of the biggest violators, with most of its officials using vehicles fitted with multi-coloured lights in the name of enforcement duty, a category not mentioned anywhere in the notification.
Regulatory framework meant to curb misuse
To prevent the unauthorised use of emergency signalling devices after the beacon ban, the government had introduced a strict identification mechanism.
As per the same notification of May 2017, every year, the transport department of every state is supposed to issue a public notice bringing to the notice of the general public the list of authorities to whom the permission to use the vehicles for emergency duties has been granted. Such vehicles will necessarily display on their windscreen the sticker issued by such a transport department. Only one sticker will be issued to the designated officer or for one vehicle at one point of time.
Transport department officials appeared unaware of the detailed provisions of the rules. Additional transport commissioner (Enforcement) Sanjay Singh acknowledged the Centre’s 2017 notification categorising vehicles engaged in emergency duties as eligible to use multi-coloured lights. However, he said he was not aware of any practice of the transport department issuing authorisation stickers to designated vehicles.
“I am not aware of any such system being followed in the department at present,” he said, with no answer to the queries on violation of the 2017 notification by vehicles in UP.
Around nine years after the beacon culture was officially dismantled, the mindset appears intact, only the colour and shape of the lights have changed. The question being asked now is whether the state will act against this new avatar of VIP entitlement or allow it to become the new “normal” on Uttar Pradesh roads.
