Intensifying its clampdown on illegally-altered vehicles, the Motor Vehicles Department has devised a novel method to find youths who zoom around in such two- wheelers and cars, through intelligence gathering.
In this, the department's enforcement personnel keep track of social media accounts of youths and their peer group who post photographs of such vehicles which have been illegally retrofitted with costly devices, and extra wide tyres.
Based on these details, they track down the registered owner, give an ultimatum to restore the vehicle as per specifications mentioned in the RC book and to produce it at the RTO office.
Any failure will result in the RC being suspended. Owners of over a dozen vehicles were tracked down based on their social media posts.
Costly components
The personnel found out that many vehicles were retrofitted with costly components imported from abroad. They included air filters and exhaust pipes which create air and noise pollution, said Enforcement RTO, K. Manoj Kumar.
Students booked
On Thursday, seven school children were caught by enforcement personnel of Motor Vehicles Department, in inspections done at different parts of Kochi to clamp down on driving by youth who do not have driving licence.