Today when the Honorable Prime Minister speaks of One India, the very first thing that comes to my mind is that, ‘Individuals cannot drive their vehicles registered in one state in another state’.
Though the center government says you can travel for 11 months, states like Karnataka have modified the rules and made it to 30 days and harasses people to pay LTT one again. To the best of my knowledge, the people suffering in Bangalore because of this is almost half of its population.
All this apart, when you cannot drive your vehicles in your own country, what is our Prime Minister speaking about making motor vehicle movement between SAARC nations??? Even the transferable central government employees are not spared in this state.
The crackdown started by Karnataka officials while checking Non-Karnataka cars has created a wave of terror amongst people residing in neighboring states. These officials treated each and every car plying in Bangalore with suspicion and had started to impound documents pertaining to the vehicle and personal documents like Company Access Cards/Pan Cards/Aadhar Cards etc.
The vehicle owners were threatened that if they do not sign the challan, their vehicles will be seized and will be towed to the nearest BMTC depots. One vehicle owner was brutally assaulted in broad daylight by agents/touts recruited by RTO officials. These very touts jump in front of vehicles to stop them.
There is a strong group of 17,800+ people on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/nonkablr) to protest against the atrocities meted out by Karnatata Road Transport officials while checking Non-Karnataka Vehicles in Bangalore. A petition had been filed in The Honorable High Court of Karnataka against the recent MV Taxation Amendment and got a stay order on this MV Amendment.
Also, over 18,000 people across state borders have signed the online petition demanding the Centre to scrap payment of road tax as charged by each of the state for vehicles registered in other states. “One Nation One Road Tax Policy“, as it has been named has gathered much attention among various citizens.
Floated on Change.org, this petition to minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari states how the same amendment has been adopted by Haryana and Kerala too. Aamir Ansari from Bengaluru says, “I am signing in support of one nation theory and against the whims of people running different government and troubling citizens.”
Please sign and share this petition to make India ‘Drive Without Borders:One Nation-One Road Tax’
Sigh the petition here – Change.org
Some information related to this issue:
– KA government amended the RTO rules in February this year, such that a non KA registered vehicle cannot be used in Karnataka for more than 1 month.
– If a person has to use his out of station vehicle in Karnataka, he has to pay the lifetime tax as defined by KA RTO, which can go upto 14% of vehicles ex-showroom price