Govt official FINED Rs. 5,000 for ‘surname sticker’ on SUV

A few days ago, the Additional Transport Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh Mukesh Chandra notified all the Regional Transport Officers of the state about a new order. The new order bans any kind of display of caste names, surnames or any kind of influential positions like Mayor, Police on the vehicles. The UP Police already started implementing the new order earlier this week. Now, cops have issued a challan of Rs 5,000 to a government official who parked his car at a government office.

The manure officer – RMO of Maharajanj parked his vehicle inside the collectorate office. The cops saw the vehicle parked and issued a challan of Rs 5,000 to the owner of the vehicle who is a government officer. The car had the sticker – “Shrineet“, which is a caste sticker. As per the report in LallanTop, after the police issued the challan, there was panic inside the collectorate’s office. Everyone who had stickers on their vehicles removed it on the spot to escape any kind of challan.

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The RMO who was driving the vehicle said that the car does not belong to him but it is of a family member. The officer said that he put the sticker of caste because many of his colleagues did the same. However, he did not know about the challans or any such ban. He added that if had known about any such ban, he would have removed the sticker himself. He believes in the action and says that he respect the cops issuing him a fine.

Numerous police challans

Traffic in charge of the area – Vinod Yadav said that the strategy is to issue as many challans as possible. Issuing challans will send a message to the owners who have such things written on their vehicles. Also, it is illegal to write anything on the windshield or the registration plate of any vehicle as per the Motor Vehicle Act.

The authorities notified about the new order on 24th December. Since then, the cops have issued numerous challans across the state. The first case happened in Kanpur, UP where a person received a challan of Rs 500. Police booked him under section 177 of the Motor Vehicle Act. As per the cops, repeating the same will invite a fine of Rs 1,500. However, the vehicle of the RMO had stickers on the registration plate also.

The new order comes after Harshpal Prabhu from Maharashtra wrote to the Prime Minister Officer earlier this year. The letter that he wrote to the PMO talked about the display of caste in the public and how it creates caste-based crimes on the roads. Even though there is no formal communication from the PMO to UP Police, the letter became viral on the Internet and the UP transport department decided to act on it.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that UP Police have acted against such vehicles. Last year, Gautam Budh Police station formed special teams and did a two-day drive against such vehicles. Hundreds of challans were issued and the cops also removed the stickers from the vehicles on the spot. The law for taking action against such display of caste or position of power is already in the MV Act. However, most state police forces ignore them.

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