It is a wild west on the streets of Hyderabad with traffic police wielding cameras like weapons and vehicle owners tampering with their registration number to dodge penal action.
On Saturday, one citizen posted a photograph of a number plate with one digit having the photograph of an MLA.
Another citizen posted a photograph of a number plate that’s covered with a surgical mask.
“We penalise them and make them rectify the number plate,” said a policeman attached to Toli Chowki Traffic Police when asked about the tampered number plates.
Barely visible
But even when the number plates are rectified, they are barely visible.
According to a 2018 Ministry of Road Transport and Highways notification, all vehicles should have high security number plates with a chromium-based hologram.
“The unique high security registration plate shall be linked electronically to the vehicle after its affixture on the vehicle on registration,” says the notification.
But on the streets of Hyderabad, the rule book goes for a toss as honest citizens are punished for minor infractions while those tampering with number plates with criminal intent go scot free.
Bending, smudging, breaking, tying ribbons, hanging helmet and changing the angle of the rear number plates are some of the tricks being devised by motorists to escape being penalised. It is not just the two-wheeler riders who are smudging, bending and hiding number plates. Vehicles transporting construction material and dangerous goods are the biggest culprits.
Every night, hundreds of heavy duty trucks loaded with sand and other construction material stream into the city from east.
A majority of them have number plates hidden behind ribbons, danglers, have smudged digits or illegal guard rails blocking the view. Even when they are caught, vehicles transporting overladen cargo get a rap on the knuckles.
A vehicle with TS07UH1277 owned by a plastic goods company has been penalised multiple times but with ₹100 or ₹135. While the challans are being promptly repaid, the transport of overladen goods has not ceased putting citizens’ lives at risk.
Helpless policemen
“We cannot do more than this. We can only click photograph and hope they pay the penalty,” said the traffic police official posted near Ring Road in Karwan.
Incidentally, on the same stretch of road there are three parking bays for trucks transporting construction material. The number plates of the vehicles parked there remain hidden or are smudged. The vehicle owners use the jurisdictional boundaries on either side of the Attapur Bridge to evade police surveillance.
