The impasse over high security number plate affixation plan of the government has inconvenienced many vehicle owners and automobile dealers for the past four months.
The scheme been stuck in a limbo after the issuance of the high security registration plates (HSRPs) for new vehicles was stopped in February following the directive of the transport department to M/s Utsav Safety System Pvt Ltd to clear the supply backlog.
“I bought a car last week and the dealer affixed an ordinary number plate on it. When I asked him for the HSRP, I was told that those were not being issued,” said Gardanibagh resident Shailendra Kumar.
Vehicle dealers, too, have no answer to the delay in the scheme. “Registration numbers are still being issued by the district transport office and we are allotting the same to the vehicle owners. But we do not put any number plate on the vehicles. Customers demand for the HSRP but we tell them that it is not our job and we can only provide the registration numbers,” said Narendra Kumar, the director (plan), Alankar Auto Sales and Services Private Limited.
Despite the backlog, registration numbers of new cars continue to be paper-printed and pasted on windscreen.
In a two-day-long video conference that ended on Friday, R.K. Mahajan, the principal secretary of the department, directed all district transport officers (DTOs) to give an up-to-date status of the installation scheme.
“Utsav has submitted a declaration that it has cleared all pending work with regard to installation of HSRPs. The firm claimed that though it has manufactured the required number of plates, vehicle owners are not turning up for the affixation. The principal secretary has asked all DTOs to conduct a physical verification of their declaration in all districts and submit a corresponding report within a week,” said Patna DTO Dinesh Kumar Rai.