New vehicles to come pre-fitted with HSR plates, people feel cheated

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 11

People, who had deposited their money with the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) for high security registration plates (HSRP) three years ago, are feeling a cheated lot as the Union Government had amended the Central Motor Vehicle Act.

All new vehicles will be sold pre-fitted with high security registration plates from April 1 next year.

Looking at the new norm with caution, Manjot Singh said like me thousands of other persons had deposited money to get installed HSRP on vehicles with Regional Transport Authority.

Later, he came to know through newspaper reports that the state government had revoked the contract of three firms engaged in the preparation of high security registration plates in January 2016.

Another resident Pawandeep Sharma said vehicle theft in the border district was high and the HSRP would probe boon for vehicle owners. It would also minimise the chances of theft.

However, lapse on the part of those private concerns had exposed the limitations of the government to comply even the norms of the contract.

He recalled the news that their vehicles were not theft proof even after installing the HSRP three years ago had come as a rude shock.

He added that apart from money their precious time had gone waste in getting the HSR plates.

Sources in the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) stated that about 1.5 lakh plates in the district were rendered irrelevant due to a lapse on the part of those companies.

Under this process, the registration numbers of vehicles are also stamped on the chassis to avoid tampering. Hundreds of vehicles are stolen every year and majority of these remained untraced.

Under the new technology, manual painting of registration number was replaced by embossing on a number plate made of nickel.

It was in January 2016 that the state government had cancelled the contract of three firms engaged in the preparation of HSRP.

Newly unveiled ‘IND’ (short for India) marked HSR plates on vehicles aimed at preventing vehicle-borne crimes. These plates provide a uniform and standardised manner of display of registration numbers and come with chromium-based hologram to protect them against counterfeiting.