[Maphpseurse]

The state transport department has launched a drive against vehicles with faulty number plates. Transport officials in north Chennai have booked around 145 vehicle owners for using faulty and misleading number plates. “Few vehicle owners pasted pictures of political leaders on the plates while others even had their partner’s photographs on them,” said a transport official.

The transport department has announced that stern action — even cancellation of registration certificates of vehicles — will be taken from September 1 against those who violate number plate rules “There is a craze among youth to get the registration number 8055 as they could

display it in a way that it appear as `BOSS'. Such misleading number plates make it tough for us to book cases on erring vehicles,“ complained a transport official.

The official appealed motorists to change the misleading and faulty registration numbers before September. “Transport commissioner has instructed the department to take stern action on vehicles with faulty and misleading number plates and has also fixed a deadline, August 31, for vehicle owners across the state to change the fancy number plates with regular ones. We have already started a drive to create awareness among the motorists on this,” he added A North Chennai official added that 145 vehicle owners had been issued charge sheets for faulty number plates during a special drive in Redhills, Madhavaram and Ambattur areas. “We have issued charge sheets to 145 vehicle owners for violation of rules. After the August deadline, we will suspend the registration certificates (RC) temporarily for the first time offenders and cancel the RC if it is repeated,” The Central Motor Vehicle Rules clearly stipulate that the alphabets should be in English and numbers Arabic numerals.