Trucks with fake number plates impounded in Rewari

Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Rewari, January 10

Some owners of heavy commercial vehicles have been found evading road tax by affixing fake registration number plates on their vehicles. This came to light during a recent checking drive in the district.

Sources say registration numbers of only those vehicles are used against which road tax has already been paid online. And vehicle owners make fake receipts similar to the ones issued by the Transport Department. So, at intra-state borders, when a registered number is entered into the system, Vahan version 4 software shows that tax has already been paid.

Till now, two such cases have surfaced, but the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) suspects the anomaly is on a bigger scale.

During the drive, a team of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) found scratches on the number plate of a truck. When its status was verified on Vahan version 4 by entering the chassis number in the system, the registration number on the plate did not match with the one in the system, said Pradeep Dahiya, RTA Secretary-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner.

“A truck registered in Panipat had the registration number of a JCB machine from Karnal. Besides, its owner was plying the truck without an insurance cover for the past more than a year. Later, another truck was found with a fake number. Its owner was using a number of a canter on his truck so as to avoid paying instalments to a finance company,” said Dahiya.

The sources say the Secretary has suggested to the police to register criminal cases against the owners of the two trucks.

“The two trucks have been impounded.As the possibility of several owners applying the same technique to avoid tax cannot be ruled out, we are making efforts to find out other cases,” Dahiya added.

CM flying squad conducts checks

The CM flying squad conducted vehicle checking operation at various places in Rewari and Mahendragarh on Thursday for imposing penalty on private buses being plied without paying tax and against permit rules. "More than 20 buses were impounded and challaned for violation of permit rules and evading tax in both the districts," said Sumer Singh, DSP (CM Flying squad).