Traffic cops struggle to eliminate fancy number plates

An alert citizen, who spotted an unusual vehicle registration number —03 03 03 — on a car in the city, has brought it to the notice of Hindustan Times. A photograph sent by one Deepak Vador in an email to HT shows a Chevrolet Cruz, at an undisclosed location, sporting the unusual number plate.

An alert citizen, who spotted an unusual vehicle registration number —03 03 03 — on a car in the city, has brought it to the notice of Hindustan Times. A photograph sent by one Deepak Vador in an email to HT shows a Chevrolet Cruz, at an undisclosed location, sporting the unusual number plate.

HT Image

“The number is actually MH-03 AH 0303, but the vehicle owner has put up a fancy number plate,” said a traffic police officer, which added that they would trace the vehicle and take action.

According to Vador, there are several such fancy number plates in the city and the authorities have not taken any action against the offenders. In spite of the traffic police taking action, there are complaints of such illegal number plates coming in on a regular basis.

As per statistics with the traffic police, they have prosecuted about 36,996 vehicles since the drive against offenders started in August. Traffic police officers also claim to have traced down and taken action against 45 complaints, where photo were posted on the official police webpage on Facebook.

According to the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, it is an offence under Section 177 and it is punishable with a fine of Rs 100. “Still, there are several vehicles still on the roads with fancy or improper number plates. The message by the police is not strong enough,” said Rahul Bajaj, a netizen.

“We have been updating the webpage by posting figures of the crackdown on law offenders and also putting up warning messages,” said Brijesh Singh, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).