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Kathmandu Thursday October 11, 2001 Ashwin 25, 2058.
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Blue
Book checking mpractical, say motorcyclists
Seema A Adhikari
KATHMANDU, Oct 10- Amul
Pathak, 23 of Koteshwor said that carrying a "blue book" with you every time
when you are riding a motorbike is very impractical. "Licence is in a card form
whereas blue book is in a booklet form and if it is lost, we will have lots of problem
again,"he added.
" This is another
way to earn money, licence checking and asking money was not enough, police have now
discovered another way to live their lives," said Raju Ghimire of Battisputali.
The Valley Traffic
Police Office (VTPO) has detained more than 100 motorbikes after its announcement on
Friday to compulsorily carry blue book while riding a motorbike. Most motorbikes were
later released after their owners brought the blue book.
VTPO has been randomly
checking the blue books since last Friday, in various parts of the Kathmandu Valley.
Krishna Prasad Baral, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) at VTPO said that this is not
a new rule that the VTPO has made. In fact, Vehicle and Transport Management Act, 2049 BS,
requires all owners to carry their blue book (owner book) at all the time.
"We have just
tried to enforce this Act strictly as the reported cases of bike stealing has increased
these days, he added. "We have started checking blue book as about 10 bikes are
reported to be lost from parking areas or even house premises every day from the
valley," he further said.
According to VTPO
records, 24 motorbikes in August and 22 in September were reported lost from parking areas
and house permises. Most of them being reported to be lost from the Exibition Road.
"Those detained
are claiming that they are not aware of this new action of the VTPO, but ignorance to law
is no excuse and we are doing this to serve public and ensure the safety of their own
vehicles," said the officials at the VTPO.
Baral refuted the
allegations that this is another trick of the police to craft money in the time of
Hindus’ great festival Dashain. "Any police officer found asking money from
public, may be complained against at the VTPO office with their name and identification
number. I will take action against such officers," Baral assured.
According to the data
provided by the VTPO, a total of 200 bikes were arrested by the traffic police in five
days from Friday to Wednesday and out of those 31 bikes are still under police custody
with no inquiries until late afternoon Wednesday.
Some bikes have also
simply changed the number plates of their vehicles without following the due process of
registration after the government implemented the new system in number plates two years
back, said an official at the Department of Transport Management office on condition of
anonymity.
"They have just
painted the plate with new numbers without registering the bike and so many bikes have not
paid their dues for years," he added. The official contended that the checking of
blue book will also reduce instances of stolen bikes as no one would like to buy a bike
without first getting the bluebook. Even if the bike is financed by finance companies,
then the companies have to inform VTPO through letter about the new bikes that they have
paid for.
A similar exercise was
done three years ago. Traffic police officers even raided some houses to check the blue
book. "People were not concerned about getting their blue books previously, however,
since we have started blue book checking, we have already received 27 complaints of lost
blue books until late afternoon Wednesday," an official at VTPO said.
However, Subash Regmi,
26,of Barhabise whose bike was stolen one month ago said, " Nobody has to fall prey
like me, it’s the only way to minimise the number of stolen bikes but the VTPO should
do it in an effective manner," he added.
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