GURUGRAM: The sudden rush in the city to get a High Security Registration Plate (HSRP) for vehicles after Delhi government’s crackdown has run against another wall. Although the Haryana government has started an online application process to deal with the rush, there have been complaints about the server crashing repeatedly and other technical glitches.
Following a Supreme Court order, HSRP has been made mandatory for all vehicles across the country since 2018. But Delhi’s decision to impose a fine of Rs 5,500 on vehicles without these number plates or colour-coded stickers have had a cascading effect across NCR, from where vehicles regularly need to travel to the capital.
While applications can be made online in Haryana and people can get the plates delivered home, many are still flocking to the HSRP centres set up by the government. Over the past few days, these centres have been seeing a rush of vehicle owners to get the new number plates. The result is that many of them are having to return empty handed because the officials can’t handle the surge of applications.
“I had gone back to my hometown in Bihar when my company announced work from home. After I came back last week, I was stopped by the cops in Delhi for not having an HSRP. I’ve been running to the centres for the past two days. But every time, they are asking me to come the day after,” said Manoj Singh, a resident of New Palam Vihar.
Others said they could not even complete the application process because the website had started displaying error messages. “When I heard about the government switching to online mode, I was much relieved. I tried the online application, but by the time I reached the final stage of making the payment, the server broke down and started displaying error messages. I called the customer care, but their response was very generic. They said the server was handling too many requests and the issues were being looked into,” said Kunal Sharma, a resident who commutes to Delhi’s Mehrauli area for work.
The company assigned the task of issuing HSRPs pleaded helplessness. It said the number of applications had seen a three-fold surge, but the number of counters had been increased too. “Earlier, hardly 50-100 people would visit the centres for HSRPs or fuel stickers. But now, we have been seeing more than 250-300 people on an average. Although the process is short and smooth, handling too many requests all of a sudden does put some pressure. People need to have patience if they are coming at the last moment to get the new number plates,” said an official of link Utasav, the company hired to install HSRP in the state. The official added that at the Beriwala Bagh centre, six counters had been set up to accommodate more people.
Administrative officials pointed out that despite repeated reminders, vehicle owners in the city hadn’t woken up to the idea of upgrading to the new number plates. “For the past one year, we had been appealing to residents to get the HSRPs, but the response was very tepid. We are doing everything to make the process smooth. If people are facing a rush at the centres and huge traffic on the website, such complaints need to be brought up and we’ll look into them. Individual solutions cannot be provided. We can think of organising camps if RWAs approach us with such a request,” said Jitendra Kumar, the SDM of north zone.