A person selling white license plates with the registration numbers in blue colour at Shahrah-e-Quaideen. Police has given 15 days to all motorcycle owners to change their fancy plates to standardised ones. PHOTO: RASHID AJMERI/EXPRESS
Given the problems being faced by motorcyclists in finding standardised license plates, the Sindh police have given them 15 more days to complete the task.
Last week, Sindh Inspector General had said that action would be taken against the owners of vehicles, including motorcycles, which use substandard number plates.
According to him, crime analysis revealed that motorcycles were being used in most incidents of crime which is why the drive was launched against the owners of motorcycles that use substandard number plates.
Most owners after the warning rushed to remove their fancy plates, substituting them with the white-coloured ones with numerals painted in blue easily available in the market. Reports, however, surfaced that the plates in the markets have been declared unacceptable and only those issued by the excise and taxation department will be considered legal.
But SSP Imran Shaukat denied any such policy. He told The Express Tribune that the excise and taxation department will issue the registration plates only to the newly registered motorcycles, while the old ones can get their registration plates from the market.
“There is no problem with the registration plates available in market for Rs100 and Rs150. The only thing is that they should have the same pattern as the standardised plates issued by the government,” he explained.
A senior official of the excise and taxation department also said that it would not be possible for the department to issue number plates of all motorcycles in the given time. “We don’t have enough machinery and manpower to complete this huge target,” he justified. “What is wrong with those number plates which are available in the market? They are also visible and acceptable by police.”
The spokesperson of the Sindh police admitted that the motorcyclists were facing hardships in changing their plates and that is why the Sindh Inspector General has extended the deadline for 15 more days. Failure to change their plates within the new deadline may be punishable by law, he warned.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2013.
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License plate on the mot or vehicles as cars, motor cycle etc., are standardised by the regulatory authority, or the Government. The plate should be of uniform color, and should carry RFID (Radio frequency Identifycation) tag, so the police, or Government will know exactly who is the owner of the vehicle, and his CNIC from distance from a device of set frequency. This will prevent theft, crime, and will link all vehicle owner with NADRA database. For unknown reasons that did not happen and the resulting crime is on the extreme. That did not happen. Now the Government regulatory/reccomendatory authority should trigger to give the technology available worldwide to the consumer.