Pramesh Jain
Following High Court order,the traffic police on Saturday conducted a special drive against the usage of defective number plates and have booked around 85 cases.
The drive against vehicles with faulty registration plates,those illegally displaying name boards similar to the ones used by government agencies, and commercial vehicles such as cabs with boards of government agencies,began on Saturday.
The drive was conducted across the West Traffic Division which has around 18 police stations including,Upparpet,Basavanagudi,Jayanagar, Banashankari,Jalahalli,Yeshwanthpur, Byatarayanapura,Magadi Road,KR Market, Vijayanagar and other areas.
Traffic police inspector of Magadi road M S Raju and his team as,ASIs,as,Siddalingaiah and Shivaswamy were seen enforcing the special drive near Magadi road police station in the morning.
They fined around 15 vehicles and removed the faulty number plate on the spot and even warned the drivers to not put anything on the number plate and the Inspector and his team even gave awareness and educated the drivers and asked them to pass the message to their friends and others to obey the order and follow traffic rules.
Vijayanagar Traffic police inspector,Giriraj Y and his team as PSI,Chandrashekhar and others conducted a drive near Tolgate circle removing the name plate fixed on the number plate of commercial and private vehicles.
The drive was carried at main junctions as many vehicles passes from main junctions to Vidhana Soudha and MS building and other government offices.
The total fine amount collected is around Rs. 42,500.All 85 defective number plate boards were removed at the spot apart with booking cases and collecting fines,The drive is going to continue in other parts of the city from Monday and action will be initiated as per IMV Act Police said.
Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,told reporters,Officials of West Division Traffic carried out the drive and booked cases against violators at locations such as,Magadi Road,Vijayanagar,Yeshwantpur, Tumakuru Road,Jayanagar, upparpet, and other areas and a Penalty of Rs.500 was imposed on each violator and the illegal registration plates and boards were removed on the spot.
As per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, penalty of Rs.500 can be imposed for first offence and Rs.1,000 for subsequent offences. The drive will be intensified in the coming days, he said.
The High Court had given instructions to conduct a special drive against defective number plates following a writ petition.
According to police the defective number plates they caught on Saturday include those having names of organizations including Pro-Kannada, Anti corruption and human rights.
Even cabs which are taken by the government department on rent are also carrying the state government logo along with the number plates.
There has been rampant misuse of names that are similar to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),Karnataka Human Rights Commission (KHRC),Central investigative agencies,and others.
While displaying the name boards, violators usually use the font size,emblem,and colour (red and green)used by government agencies.
Senior officer said,During the drive on Saturday, we booked many commercial vehicles such as cab for displaying boards of government agencies.These vehicles were hired by government agencies for ferrying officers.
As per the rules,commercial and private vehicles cannot display government boards.We also took action against private vehicle owners who had displayed name boards similar to government agencies or number plates in such a way that it appeared like those on government vehicles.
He even said the name boards are usually used to prevent checking by enforcement authorities and to avoid paying toll.
The motorists were warned not to put the names of their organizations or use fancy numbers which is violation according to the Motor vehicles Act.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant,Joint CP Traffic,Dr BR Ravikanthe Gowda,has appreciated,DCP Traffic West, Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,ACPs,as,AB Sudhakar,Gopal Krishna Gowda,and all other PIs,PSIs,ASIs,and staff who has conducted a surprise special drive and gave a shock to commercial vehicle and private vehicle owners who were displaying the government of Karnataka boards on the number to avoid toll and the drive will be continued and we will take action if still they don’t abide the rules.
Finally we appeal to all the vehicle owners and authorities to remove the defective number plates on their own as the drive will be intensified in coming days and strict action will be taken he added.
