A man tries to cover the registration number painted in Meitei with a piece of paper in Imphal on Wednesday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Imphal, July 25: Motorists in the Manipur valley are on the horns — no pun intended — of a dilemma that looks unlikely to end in a hurry.

Script activists are forcing numberplates to be changed to Meitei Mayek, the original alphabet of the valley, and police are promptly removing them to counter the campaign.

The Meitei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup, which forced the Okram Ibobi Singh government to replace the Bengali script with Meitei Mayek in Classes I and II two years ago, had asked all vehicle owners to replace their number plates by today.

The organisation warned of action against owners of vehicles displaying numberplates in the English script from tomorrow.

The Ibobi Singh government contends that using the Meitei Mayek script on numberplates is a violation of the Motor Vehicles Act. The police today opened checkpoints across Imphal East and West districts and stopped vehicles with numberplates in the local script. Two such checkpoints are near the chief minister’s office.

“We have been stopping vehicles and asking the drivers to scrape out numbers in the local script,” a police officer in charge of one of the checkpoints said.

Leaders of the Meitei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup appeared undeterred by the police crackdown. “Whether the government likes it or not, we will stick to our path. We will not succumb to the pressure tactics of the government,” its president, Ng. Yumjao, said.

Several leaders, including the general secretary and vice-president of the organisation, are already in preventive detention. The police have reportedly registered a case against Yumjao under the Punjab Security Act and are trying to take him into custody.

“The Meitei script is recognised by the state government. It is already taught in schools. It is the responsibility of the government to popularise the script. We are doing what is supposed to be done by the government. What is the harm if we insist on the script being on the numberplates of vehicles?” Yumjao asked.

The Meitei Erol Eyek Loinasillon Apunba Lup wants only English and Meitei Mayek numerals on numberplates.