Mafia panacea for all ills!

The Sindh Excise and Taxation Department has not issued motorcycle number plates to more than 100,000 people since last six months forcing them to purchase the same illegally and unlawfully from vendors sitting outside the excise office at Civic Centre.

In 2010, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah approved summary regarding standardised registration plates for motorcycles and auto-rickshaws in Sindh following the footstep of Punjab government where the same project was implement years before.

According to the excise department official, more than 100,000 motorbikes had been registered during 2014, however, due to delay in tender from the excise department to print number plates, people had been forced to buy it from outside. He said the motorcycle number plates having series from KHB to KHJ had not been issued during 2014.

Mohammad Shakaib, who purchased his bike in January, told PPI that he had not received number plate of his bike yet and the officials at the excise office told every time to come after a month. “During the initial weeks, I did not affix any number plate showing non-issuance of registration, however, harassment from traffic police officials forced me to buy an unregistered number plate,” he said.

When contacted, Administration Excise Department Deputy Director Riaz Khoso said the amount required from the finance department to publish number plates had not been received yet which was causing hurdles in issuance of number plates.

He said the process for issuing tender had begun and the department would start issuing plates from August 2014. The government had allocated Rs 2.5 million for stationary, Rs 50 million for printing registration books, Rs 50 million for motorcycle number plates and Rs 12.5 million for four-wheel vehicle number plates in 2014, he said, adding they had approved Rs 1 million for stationary, Rs 15 million for registration books, Rs 15 million for two-wheeler number plates and Rs 8 million for four-wheeler number plates.

Khoso said the department had received amounts for four-wheelers, printing registration books and stationary, however, the amount for the two wheelers was not yet issued.