Hyderabad, Nov 12: The Nava Telangana party’s (NTP) innovative ‘number plate’ agitation is turning out to be a major headache for motorists and the police. As part of this agitation the party activists are sticking ‘TG’ stickers on number plates of vehicles over the usual ‘AP’ tag.
This follows the party’s declaration of the birth of the Telangana state on November 2, a day after the celebration of 53rd Andhra Pradesh Formation Day. Police fears that anti-social elements may misuse this agitation. It is the usual practice of criminals to use vehicles with fake number plates to confuse cops.
"This agitation will give them an occasion to indulge in such mischief freely," said a senior cop. Traffic cops are also worried that the tampering of number plates will make it difficult for them to trace those motorists who violate traffic rules. Though changing number plates is an offence under the Motor Vehicles Act, the transport department is hesitating to take action since it involves a sensitive issue. The government initially thought the NTP agitation would not have much impact since the party did not have a big network in the city.
However, NTP printed thousands of stickers and distributed it to sympathisers of Telangana. Each activist has been asked to paste 100 stickers a day. Though the Home, minister, Mr K. Jana Reddy, had warned of string action against those who tamper with number plates, the NTP decided to continue the agitation since it had grabbed the media attention. In fact, the number plate agitation has given the NTP more publicity than a dozen rallies.
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