The high security number plates (HSNP) for vehicles are stacked from the floor to the ceiling in a 10ftx10ft room at the Telangana State Road Transport Authority facility in Kondapur. “We have taken that warehouse on rent for storing number plates which customers have not taken. They date back from 2014,” says Tirupati, pointing to a house where registration number plates are neatly stored in shelves.
Tirupati manages the HSNP affixing business at Kondapur RTA. “The number plates were fixed by a private party here. But now, showrooms are supposed to fix the number plates to vehicles,” informs the RTA official.
Periodic audit by the HSNP facility revealed that 18,000 to 24,000 number plates remain undelivered per quarter. The result? Chaos on the roads of Hyderabad. Missing number plates, some covered with paint or duct tape on one digit, and bent on hundreds of vehicles plying in the city. “We caught them for not wearing helmet and they started removing the paper covering the number plate. This can be a very dangerous offence,” says a senior traffic officer as his colleagues stop vehicles near Gudimalkapur. The two boys grin, pay ₹200 fine and zip away.
Surveillance fear
With the rise in surveillance cameras in the city, there has been a spurt in vehicle owners resorting to criminal techniques to hide or deface the registration numbers to avoid penalties. Even the accused in the Shadnagar gangrape and murder case had destroyed the number plate of the veterinarian’s vehicle.
The dependence of traffic police on surveillance cameras can be seen from the fact that the department, in 2019, logged 39,48,752 non-contact Motor Vehicle Act violations, as against 6,80,083 violations where the police had to intervene.
Usual suspects
Hiding the number plates is a high stakes criminal enterprise when it comes to heavy-duty trucks transporting building debris and construction material. “Look at this. He has smudged two digits of the rear number plate and hung a black cloth to block the view from the front,” says a police official as the driver of AP22-1302 tries to cook up an explanation.
In September, the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department notified GO-632 that levied hefty penalty for transporting construction and building debris. The first offence draws a penalty of ₹25,000, the second offence ₹50,000 and a third offence would lead to confiscation of vehicle used and a penalty of ₹1 lakh.
“Unless we can press criminal charges against vehicle owners for disfiguring the number plates, this will go on,” says the traffic official overseeing the checkpoint at Gudimalkapur.
