'Fake number plates on most ambulances'

The Times of India; Prafulla Marpakwar; Sunday, Apr 17, 2011,

MUMBAI: An alert Worli resident, through the Right to Information (RTI) Act, found out to his shock that many ambulances plying the city roads were using fake number plates. What was even more surprising was the fact that most of these numbers were registered with RTOs decades ago for vehicles other than ambulances and the owners might not even be aware that their number plates were being illegally 'recycled'.

"The possibility of such ambulances being used for terrorist and anti-social activities is high. They pose a grave danger to the lives of the people and the security of the country," Dileep Nevatia, a leading businessman, said.

Nevatia also submitted details of such ambulances to the additional chief secretary (home), transport, the police commissioner and director general of police in December 2010, but there was no response to his series of letters so far. In fact, his letters were not even acknowledged by any of the competent authorities.

Now Nevatia has filed a fresh application under RTI Act with the authorities to whom he had submitted his report, seeking to know the status of the complaint lodged by him. "I have no option. I have the right to know the status of my complaint," Nevatia said.

Between October 1 and November 30, 2010, Nevatia noted down the numbers of ambulances plying in the Worli area, particularly on the Bandra-Worli sea link, along with the date and time. Later, he filed an RTI query at the regional transport offices (RTOs) in Tardeo, Andheri and Thane to know who the owners of these number plates are and under what categories are these vehicles registered.

According to the RTOs' response, barring a few vehicles, most of the number plates were for two-wheelers, autorickshaws or heavy vehicles. Two of them were even registered for buses. Significantly, none of these was registered as an ambulance with the transport department.

Nevatia said that of the 50 ambulances he had checked, 25 number plates were registered as either two- or three-wheelers. It could be inferred that several of these ambulances were not even registered with the RTO, he added.

A senior transport official said that a high-level investigation team should be set up to probe into the matter. "Besides the security threat, these vehicles cause a massive loss to the state exchequer as the owners avoid paying taxes by using old number plates," he said.

The transport official said it was the responsibility of the RTOs concerned to alert the persons whose vehicle registration numbers were being misused in this manner. "The information collected by Nevatia should be forwarded to the actual owners so that they can lodge a police complaint," he said.