No fancy car numberplate issued since August in city

If you are looking to secure a fancy registration number for your car, you just might have to wait a while. The Transport department has not issued any fancy numbers over the past five months as it is still in the process of working on an online system through which it can auction these numbers.

While a draft notification for this policy has been issued, the final notification will only be issued once the auctioning system is in place, Transport officials said.

The department has only been issuing these numbers to Supreme Court and High Court judges, Lok Sabha and Delhi Assembly Speaker and Union ministers and Delhi Cabinet ministers, among a few others who can book fancy numbers for free for up to two vehicles.

"We have not issued any fancy registration numbers since August 15, 2012, except in the case where such numbers are supposed to be given for free — MLAs, MPs etc. We have assigned the work of creating an online auctioning system for fancy numbers to National Informatics Centre and the agency is still working on the project,'' a Transport official said. Suggestions and objections on this policy have already been invited.

The system of auctioning is supposed to stop corruption in allotment of fancy registration numbers that ails the existing system.

"People have been turning up at the Transport office and the Transport Minister's office also asking for fancy numbers since the process of issuing such numbers have been discontinued since August 2012. For most Delhiites, it is a very important status symbol and they are willing to pay any price for it. But we cannot issue any numbers until the auctioning process is in place,'' the official said.

The government will have to amend the Delhi Motor Vehicles Rule 1993 to insert a new Rule 34A, which will allow for the auction of such fancy registration numbers.

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