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Bhubaneswar, March 30: Next time your dad gifts you a sports bike, better think twice before getting ‘Dad’s Gift’ etched on the license plate.
In a crackdown on fancy license plates, Commissionerate Police and city traffic police Sunday conducted a series of vehicle checks across the city and penalised 1,596 motorists.
A fine of Rs 500 was levied from the erring motorists, while license plates of around 200 vehicles were corrected on the spot.
Checkposts were set up at a distance of every one km. CP conducted checks at 30 places in the city while traffic police conducted checks at six places.
By 8:30 pm Sunday, CP had fined around 1,300 motorists while traffic police penalised 206.
“The drive was to raise awareness among vehicle owners as to the difficulties police face while tracking down criminals due to such fancy plates. Often, they give police the slip by resorting to such practices,” said Bishnu Mishra, assistant commissioner of
police.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act, only the registration number should be written in two lines in a specified font on a white plate (for private vehicles) or on a yellow plate (for transport vehicles) in black lettering in a size proportionate to the vehicle’s. Background stickers, colours, phrases or fancy fonts are banned.
“Mentioning one’s profession such as Press, Police, or Army on personal vehicles is prohibited as well,” said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Jatin Panda.
Second-time violators of the license plate rule will be fined Rs 1,000, Panda added.
The Act also mandates that the license plates should only be in English both on the front and back of a
vehicle.