Only 'real VIPs' to get fancy numbers

Amitabh Shukla New Delhi, March 21

You will no longer be able to get a fancy or a VIP number any more. If you want one, you have to get your vehicle registered out of the city. Delhi government’s Transport Department has decided that from now on these numbers would be given only to the government vehicles and that too only to the high ranking officials, ministers and judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court.

“An executive order has been passed to this effect. This simply means that no privately owned vehicle would be able to get numbers like 0001, 0002, 100, 786 etc.” said a senior official of the Transport Department.

Officials said that even the private vehicles of the ministers, judges and senior officials cannot have the fancy numbers. The decision of the government comes after months of indecisiveness on framing a policy to give fancy numbers.

With this, Delhi becomes the only state in the country where only the VIPs would get fancy or VIP numbers. In most of the states, the number is auctioned and the revenue generated goes in the coffers of the respective state governments.

The Delhi Cabinet had discontinued giving fancy numbers in August last year after it was found that land scam accused Ashok Malhotra had one and a half dozen cars with fancy numbers. Till then, the Transport Minister, at the recommendation of elected representatives or other important dignitaries, issued the numbers.

Sources in government said the Transport department toyed with the idea of putting the numbers to auction and also prepared a Cabinet note which fixed the minimum price for each fancy number. The Cabinet did not clear it as it feared offending the VIPs of Delhi who are continuously on the look for a status symbol. “As no solution could be found, we decided to extend this facility only for the government vehicles,” said the source.

Officials pointed out that the government was not ready for any fresh controversy which the fancy numbers generate. “First it was a dealer who imported foreign cars and got VIP numbers which led to a major controversy in the year 2005. Then the Ashok Malhotra episode. From now, the entire mechanism wherein people of dubious background got these numbers is scrapped,” said a senior official.