Trying reading this at 100 kmph

Trying reading this at 100 kmph
Vijay Times

Having a registration plate in Kannada on your vehicle might just save you from being summoned in case you have committed a traffic violation while on the move.

It is not because the traffic police are biased towards owners of vehicles with Kannada registration boards. It is simply because nearly 95 per cent of them are not familiar with Kannada numerical digits, according to senior police officials.

The result is that an unestimated number of traffic rule violators go scot-free on a daily basis even as an increasing number of motorists are changing to only-Kannada registration boards.

Strangely, traffic police officials and constables not familiar with Kannada digits do not even venture to take down the number fearing that a wrong number would be noted down resulting in penalising an innocent motorist.

Worse, nowhere in the Motor Vehicles Act is it mandatory to have a registration board in the regional language, but it is compulsory to have one in English. A board in regional script is only an optional addition to the one in English, according to Transport Commissioner M C Narayana Gowda. Senior police officials opine that digits in both English and Kannada should be written concurrently and writing only in Kannada would pose problems.

Traffic police officials fear repercussions from Kannada activists in the form of protests or departmental action against them through political pressure if vehicles bearing only-Kannada registration boards are stopped and drivers questioned.

Even constables and officials who can read Kannada digits with ease admit to having a problem differentiating between the Kannada digits 6 and 9. And it is even worse while noting it down from a speeding vehicle.