Wait and act attitude
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 05 , 2013 -

Initiation of a plan or announcement of certain measures for public welfare is a relatively easy task, but what is more important is putting that plan or measures into action, not just for a day or two, but throughout. Otherwise, it is simply a useless exercise.

This is exactly what has happened to the drive, with the tag of ‘special’ attached to it, launched by the State police against use of tinted glasses on four-wheelers running on the roads of Imphal.

Even before the May 4, 2012 directive of the Supreme Court to all the States and the Union Territories to strictly enforce the ban on use of the tinted-glasses beyond the permissible limit; the Superintendent of Police, Imphal West district had issued an order on January 13, 2012 announcing that police would be conducting vigorous checks on vehicles fitted with tinted glasses in accordance to the provisions under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and sought the co-operation of the public in this regard.

The initiative of the district police was believed to have been taken up after due cognisance of the fact that most crimes of kidnapping children, which were rampant at that time, were committed using vehicles with tinted glasses.

When the ruling of the Supreme Court in a PIL filed by one Avisekh Goenka seeking total ban on all forms of tinted glasses used in four wheelers came, the SP followed up with another order on August 4, 2012 maintaining that the Imphal West District Police was continuing with its special drive and reminded that the people use of tinted glasses is violative of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

But few months down the line, it has become back to square one with many four-wheelers with tinted glasses moving around in the city freely and the police personnel, who are supposed to enforce these Act and Rules as well as the Supreme Court directive, forgotten all about the ‘special drive’ they had launched with such gusto for some days or weeks even to the extent of removing tinted glasses from vehicles forcefully and imposing fine on defaulters.

Of course, the Supreme Court ruling did not endorse any blanket ban on use of tinted glasses and it only made it mandatory to have the recommended density of tinted glasses, which is 70 percent visibility for the front and rear glasses and 50 percent for the side glasses. Moreover, there are exemption of this ruling for the Z and Z plus security status vehicles like that of Chief Minister and Governor rank onwards.

But it would be surely ridiculous to assume that all the tinted vehicles we see on the roads of Imphal today are that of the Chief Minister or the Governor or they are within the permissible level of opaqueness.

So, there is no question of officials of the State Police or the Transport Departments escaping from facing the contempt of court if someone dares to file a petition in the law court against the failure of enforcing the Supreme Court directive on use of tinted glasses on vehicles.

By the way, are the police waiting for emergence of crimes involving vehicles fitted with tinted-glasses again for conducting another round of ‘special drive’?