Licensed to break law

Vehicle owners display licence plates as they wish, get away with the offence right under traffic men’s nose
Car licence plates have become a symbol of utter disregard for law as the vehicle owners tamper with the plates by using varying typefaces and designs in violation of the rules that strictly prohibit such practices, reports The Daily Star.
In the wake of increasing numbers of fatal street accidents and vehicle thefts, traffic police officers say altering the plates makes it difficult to make out the registration numbers. They are concerned that vehicles involved in crimes or hit-and-run cases can be difficult to trace.
“It has become a trend to have attractive number plates to go along with a new car where the designs, spacing and typefaces of number plates are freely altered. This makes registration numbers virtually unreadable from afar,” said Jahur, a traffic sergeant at Mirpur-1.
“Increasing use of English letters in plates is also alarming,” he said, adding, “A simple change in letter spacing can make 13 look like B. The letter O can look like D, 12 can look like 15 and the letter S can get confused with the number 5.”
As stated in Motor Vehicle Rules, 1984, it is illegal to cover any part of a licence plate with any material including clear or colourless material that affects the plate’s visibility or reflectivity.
The registration number has to be written in Bangla script and any illustration or written materials beside the licence number are also strictly prohibited. The plates must be 524mm x 112mm in size for a car.
However, cars with number plates of various sizes, fonts and designs along with ornamental adjustments are virtually everywhere on the streets.
New cars bought from showrooms come equipped with flashy number plates. Some have the numbers painted in reflective typefaces while others have metallic chains as borders.
Many car dealers and company cars also tend to use their logo in the licence plate for their promotion, which is a blatant violation of the rules. The logos, designs also tend to be eye-catching, making the registration numbers less visible.
Some cars are also seen on the streets with the licence plates illuminated with neon borders. While this practice is illegal and impracticable, it makes the plates virtually unreadable during night.
Disproportionately larger sized licence plates are also seen on the streets. This is gross violation of the rules that mandate that number plates of normal cars must have a measurement of 524mm x 112mm.
However, Monsur Hossain, a metal engineer from a metal engineering work store in Bangla Motor told The Daily Star that he could make a licence plate of any size as long as it fits on the car.
“Each type of car usually has a specific size of licence plate appropriate for it. But we can make it bigger or smaller if the customer wants,” said Alam, adding that he can add patterns and designs on the borders and fonts used in the plates.
According to regulations, licence plates must have the licence number in Bangla script, painted on flat steel or aluminium plate, following a specific colour code based on the type of the vehicle.
Car plates should have white characters on a black background while those of foreign personnel black characters on yellow.
The regulations specify black characters on white background for buses and taxis, while motorbikes are obliged to have white numbers over black backdrop on a smaller plate.
Most of the blame would fall on car owners who are putting personal preferences over the law.
A car owner, whose number plate is in English along with a metallic border, told The Daily Star that he was not aware of the regulations.
“I was not aware that such rules exist and installed that number plate because it looks nice and goes well with the car,” the car owner said.
Public transport vehicles such as buses, CNG-run autorickshaws and human hauliers tend to have licence plates in so poor a condition that they could be hardly read.
No form of disciplinary measures against the violators seems to be in effect. The violators continue to make a mockery of the law by ignoring all regulations while some are even running their vehicles without any number plates.
A source at Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) on condition of anonymity admitted that the situation of defaced licence plates has virtually gone out of control. “There are other bigger issues such as fake driving licences, fitness papers which take priority over the issue of number plates.”
Other sources at BRTA admitted that the authority have little control over the different metal and engineering works stores, who are mostly responsible for making the licence plates.
Traffic sources said they avoid prosecuting cars with defaced licence plates as many motorists would dub the clampdown as traffic harassment.
Shafiqur Rahman, joint commissioner of traffic, said, “Some order needs to be maintain as to how people should display their vehicle numbers.”
“These are not offences that people commit by accident, these are deliberate. And as par the rules violators will be punished accordingly,” he said.

Courtesy of The Daily Star