Representational imageThiruvananthapuram: The red beacon on ministers’ cars may be on the way out but the ministers do not want to part with the privilege of special numbers.
The Transport Department has prevailed upon the governor’s office to do away with special number plates but a file containing a similar directive has got a quit burial in the government secretariat.
Even the prime minister’s car does not have a special number other than the registration number. Ministers in most of the states go about in cars with ordinary number plates.
The Transport Department had issued a directive to display registration numbers on ministers’ cars when Tomin J. Thachankery was the transport commissioner. The department can impose a fine on ministers’ cars if they fail to display the mandatory registration numbers.
The department wanted the Raj Bhavan to display the registration numbers instead of a board that just read ‘Raj Bhavan’. The governor’s office obliged and made the necessary changes.
A similar direction to the chief secretary, however, was sent back after the cabinet did not take a decision on it. The Transport Department has proposed a new number plate for ministers and VIPs which shows the state’s emblem on top and the number allotted by the department on the left side.
The transport commissioner wanted to fish out a file from 1987 that allowed ministers to display the state’s emblem on their cars’ number plates. The file could not be traced though. The Transport Department intends to forward the latest directive to the chief secretary again.
The government has set in motion the process to issue new guidelines about fitting red beacons on top of cars. Some of the ministers have already done away with the red beacon in accordance with a central directive.
