Mumbai: ‘Papa’, ‘BOSS’ come under cops’ scanner

As a part of a crackdown against motorist riding vehicles with fancy number plates, the Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) has registered a total of 2,272 cases registered from January 2019 till the early weeks of August. The traffic cops have also sent reminder messages to all the said number of lawbreakers appealing them to change their existing fancy number plates and switch to standard number plates as prescribed in the law.

According to the MTP officials, among the various offenses related to violation of traffic-related laws like drunk and driving, driving without a license, speaking on mobile phones, honking, lane cutting and driving without helmets and seatbelts, the motorists with fancy number plates were more of a headache for the traffic police. Speaking more about the issues related to such offenses, a traffic police officer who requested anonymity told DNA, “Cases related with number plates are always taken seriously by the traffic police as it helps in the fast-tracking down of the violators. Thanks to the e-challan system that the entire system has turned digital and we have a perfect database having all necessary details of the lawbreakers so we can reach out to them on a faster basis. In the recent times, whenever there is any violation of traffic rules, the installed CCTV footage helps us to reach out to them on the basis of the number plate and accordingly, the challan is issued out to them. Out of many different features of the vehicles which can be used for its identification, number plates play a very crucial role and whenever there is any sort of crime including accidents and street racing, the number plates help us to track them down as early as possible,”

The MTP who have now started taking serious cognizance in this matter have focused more on creating awareness among the people and educating them about the strict provisions of laws mentioned in the Central Motor Vehicles Act. “There are a total of 83 offenses listed by the MTP which are fined accordingly as per the gravity of the offense. For fancy number plates, the fine is Rs 1000 and it has been identified as an offense under section 51 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules and section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act. Number plates with graffiti or drawing or vehicle registration numbers in regional languages including those belonging to the government department is strictly under the radar. Number plate vendors are also being instructed not to design such boards,” the officer added.

“As of now 2,272 cases have been registered and all the violators have been sent a reminder message by the digital database system. The action shall be continued in future and awareness programs too shall be undertaken by the police. When caught, lawbreakers claim that they were unaware of the law but that excuse cannot be taken anymore. We expect people to mend their ways and switch to standard nameplates soon,” said Joint Commissioner of Police, traffic, Madhukar Pandey.