By Our Reporter
Shillong: As the drive against use of tinted glasses in vehicles in the city entered the second day, the Shillong Traffic Police (STP) managed to remove tints on glasses from a total of 2088 vehicles from various parts of the city on Wednesday.
As per details, STP removed tints from glasses of 1028 vehicles under Sadar Traffic branch, 475 under Lumdiengjri Traffic branch, 358 under Laitumkhrah Traffic branch and 232 under Madanriting Traffic branch.
“We will continue with this move until there are no vehicles with tinted glassed plying on the streets of Shillong,” Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Herbert Lyngdoh told reporters here on Wednesday.
He also informed that the same exercise was being conducted in the city suburbs. If vehicle owners don’t comply with the apex court order, fine will be accordingly imposed as per the Motor Vehicle Act, he added.
Meanwhile, setting an example for others, tints were removed from the vehicles of Meghalaya DGP N Ramachandran and other police officials.
Stressing on the advantage of this move, Lyngdoh said visibility will prevent many crimes being committed inside the cars. “Drunk driving, accidents and many such crimes will tremendously come down,” he added.
It was however, noticed that government vehicles were left untouched by the traffic police in the ongoing drive.
Meghalaya DGP N Ramachandran has however made it clear that government vehicles also fall under the purview of the Supreme Court ban.
He, however, said the Supreme Court order can be exempted only in those cases where security is a concern.
It was informed that government vehicles have been left out of the purview of the ban as a committee of the State Government is examining the case since the Supreme Court order allows the states to determine the beneficiaries of tinted glasses.
The apex court order mentions that certain VIPs/VVIPs using black films on their vehicles for security reasons is not supported by law, as no notification by any competent authority has been brought to its notice giving exemption to such vehicles from the operation of Rule 100 or any of its provisions.
The apex court had stated that it would be for the state committee to examine such cases for grant of exemption in accordance with law and upon due application of mind.
These certificates should be provided only in relation to official cars of VIPs/VVIPs, depending upon the category of security that such persons have been awarded by the competent authority.