Orissa High Court Seeks Affidavit From STA On HSRP Infra

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has sought an affidavit from the State Transport Authority (STA) on the current status of the infrastructure for completion of the High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) plan for vehicles in a hassle free manner.

While hearing a petition on the matter on Wednesday, the court also wanted to know the current position on slot booking and the penalty the STA seeks to levy on violators, through the affidavit. The court fixed October 31 for next hearing.

Earlier, the STA had not submitted any statement about its plans on the HSRP drive and had verbally informed about infrastructure for HSRP registration, counsel for the petitioner Kajol Sahu told a news channel.

Therefore, the court directed the STA to submit an affidavit giving details of all the arrangements made for slot booking on or before October 31, she said.

The court had earlier questioned the move of the Odisha government fixing the deadline for the fitment of plates without having proper infrastructure.

It has been alleged that that common vehicle users are still unaware of the benefits of high security registration plate (HSRP) due to lack of adequate awareness promotion by the government. Besides, majority of them are not conversant with computer operations and online submission of document.

It may be noted that the government had earlier directed the STA to ensure that people face no harassment while getting their HSRP fixed.  The STA has been asked to assess the number of old vehicles, and the capacity of HSRP manufacturers and accordingly re-fix the timeline for affixation of the number plate.

The Odisha government on September 30 revised the timeline for affixation of HSRP in vehicles. The timeline for affixing HSRP was also extended by one month.

STA had also issued a notification extending the deadline for vehicles carrying registration numbers ending with 1, 2, 3 and 4 to October 31, 2022. While the last date for vehicle numbers ending with 5 and 6 was extended to November 30, the deadline for those ending with 7 and 8 was extended to December 31. For vehicle numbers ending with 9 and 0, the last date is January 31, 2023.