PRINCE KUMAR
Ranchi, Dec 13: A week has passed since Ranchi’s transport department inspected vehicles for the usage of unlicensed number plates and stickers. However, the roads of Ranchi are still packed with people using fancy number plates and stickers of the press, police etc., that are strictly prohibited, with a few exceptions.
Manoj, who owns a sticker shop near Dibdih Bridge, said that he is still getting a lot of orders for special stickers.
“I get at least one customer on a daily basis who wants to install a fancy sticker on his vehicle and my business is running fine. People also come to install fancy number plates, though it is banned, still there is a craze for fancy number plates,” he said.
The checking was done on December 6 where a total of Rs 35,500 was collected as fine from 15 vehicles under Section 179 of the ‘Motor Vehicles’ Act, 1988. No such checking was done to curb the use of unauthorised number plates and stickers after that.
The District Transport Officer, Praveen Kumar Prakash, said that the checking is going on and it is not necessary to put this in the eyes of the public every time.
“After Monday, a total of Rs 7,500 was collected as fine from 15 vehicles for violating the rules and using unauthorised number plates and stickers,” Prakash said.
The Jharkhand High Court had directed the state government to crack down on vehicles putting up unauthorised number plates and stickers such as press, police, designations etc. As per rule, only a certain section of people holding constitutional posts such as governor, chief minister, judge and the likes notified by the government can use them on their vehicles.