A policeman removes dark film from a car window in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, July 1: The drive to enforce the ban on use of tinted glass on four-wheelers today drew people’s flak when police allowed some government vehicles, including the car of forest and environment minister Debi Prasad Mishra, to pass at Red-Cross Bhavan Square without removing the black films on their glasses.

People today appeared upset at the policemen’s showing leniency towards the government vehicles. “While the police removed the black film from my vehicle, they let the minister’s car pass. This is prejudice,” said Santosh Dash, a vehicle owner.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Nirmal Satpathy said today’s exercise was the part of an awareness drive. “The concerned government officials have assured us to remove the dark films from their vehicles within a day or two,” he said.

The cops removed black films from the glasses of around 200 vehicles in a drive conducted at Power House, Kalinga Stadium, Red Cross, Ram Mandir and Delta Square.

“We will continue this for the next five days. We are not imposing fines at the moment. But, we will soon do that if violations continue,” said Satpathy. He said the violators would be fined Rs 500 under the Orissa Urban Police Act.

The police had been conducting an awareness drive against the use of tinted glasses on vehicles since June 26, almost eight weeks after the Supreme Court ordered a ban on the use of dark films and tinted glasses on four-wheelers.

A traffic official said that since the launch of the awareness drive people had been coming to traffic police station to enquire about the kind of glasses to be used on four wheelers. “Moreover, our officials are getting calls from people enquiring about the permissible limit of visible light transmission (VLT) on car windows and windscreens,” said a traffic police official.

The police said according to the provisions of Section 100(2) of the Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1989, using dark, black and reflective glasses on vehicles was not permitted. However, vehicle manufacturers or car owners were not abiding by this law. On April 27, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court delivered a verdict prohibiting the use of black film of any VLT percentage or any other material upon the safety glasses, windscreens and side glasses of all vehicles. The rule allows vehicle owners to use glasses with VLT specification of minimum 70 per cent for front and rear window screen and 50 per cent for side windows.