Why has the Government made the High-Security Number Plate (HSRP) mandatory? 

Why in News?

The Motor Vehicle Act of 1988 was replaced by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, MoRTH, with the new Motor Vehicles Act. In the previous week, the Delhi Transport Department began fining the vehicles without HSRP and colour-coded fuel stickers

About

The Government in the new act mandated all vehicles to have a high-security registration plate, HSRP that have been sold by April 2019

Key Facts

What is HSRP:

1. HSRP stands for High-Security Registration Plates. These plates are difficult to tamper with and are made of aluminium. They get two non-reusable locks with them. 
2. Vehicle identification numbers (VIN) are to be laser encoded in these plates, that might be easier to scan. These are difficult to tinker.

What are Color Coded stickers:

1. Colour-coded stickers would be placed from the inside of the windscreen of the car. These help in the identification of the type of fuel the car is running on. It may be petrol, diesel or CNG.
2. The car owners would have to install an additional green strip on the top of the sticker that would be informed about the car adherence to BS6 norms. 
3. As per the norms:
4. The blue colour stands for petrol and CNG, 
5. Orange stands for diesel
6. The green colour stands for electric car

Significance of the move:

1. In case of theft, it would make tampering with the VIN or number plate very difficult for the thief.
2. Police will be able to track cars by scanning the plates using CCTVs as the plate, the PIN would help in doing so. 
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Amount of the Challan :

The violation would be fined INR 10,000 depending on the government of the state. This has been done as the topic falls in the concurrent list. Now the fine has been compounded to INR 5500 in New Delhi

About the number plate: Changes to be made

1. It should be made of aluminium
2. The new kind of number plates would have ‘IND’ and chromium-based Ashoka Chakra. The registration plate would be stamped with hot-stamped chromium-based Ashoka Chakra on the left-hand side.
3. It must be locked with two non-reusable locks
4. The left side would have a 10 digit PIN which would make the vehicle more identifiable and will have uniformity across the country. 
5. HSRP comes with a hot-stamped film applied to the registration numbers and letters. These would bear the inscription of India at 45 degrees. 

Cost of the HSRP:

1. HSRP for four-wheelers will cost up to Rs 1,000, depending on the category of your car, with an additional Rs 100 for the colour-coded sticker. 
2. For two-wheelers, the same will cost up to Rs 600.
3. The people can apply online also and HSRP would be given analysing the type and form of car. 

The people can get applications at the nearest RTO office and apply for HSRP. The move is significant as there was a rise in the number of motor vehicle thefts and the police’s inability to reach the criminal before the car was dismantled. This move would help the police in performing their duties and improve the quality of driving in India. 

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