Srinagar: While a large number of vehicle owners go through a tough time in the re-registration process, the J&K Motor Vehicles Department is verifying the credentials of all such vehicles for any previous record of theft, crime or accident.
Ikramullah Tak, Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Srinagar, told Kashmir Reader that following a huge number of applications for the re-registration of non-J&K registered vehicles, the department has written to the police department of different states for the proper verification of all such vehicles with respect to any record of theft, crime or accident reported against each vehicle.
Only after getting confirmation from the police authorities, he said, the fresh registration certificate will be issued to the owners of such vehicles.
“There is a huge number of non-J&K vehicles applying for the re-registration with the Motor Vehicles Department of J&K. We need to scrutinise each one of them before handing over the new registration certificates. We have begun the process and are reaching out to police stations of different areas in many states across India for proper verification of such vehicles, confirming about any cases of theft, crime or accident against each vehicle. Along with this, we also check with the National Crime Records (NCR) portal to retrieve any crime record against the vehicle. After ensuring these aspects are properly verified, the registration certificate will be approved in the favour of the owner,” Tak said.
On daily basis, he added, the department comes across such criminal cases registered against eight to ten vehicles applying for the re-registration of their vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir. To ensure transparency in the process, all such vehicles need to undergo proper verification, he said.
“Someone has brought the vehicle from, say, a state like Delhi and has been driving that for the past few years in Kashmir. The vehicle is not registered in his name; its owner is different. We don’t know about the past history of such vehicle and certain aspects need to be monitored and subsequently verified. Many such vehicle owners don’t possess any No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and keep on roaming on the roads freely. But the ones with proper NOC will not face any problems,” Tak said.
Meanwhile, over the past few days, there have been huge beelines at different RTOs of Kashmir valley with hundreds of owners of non-J&K registered vehicles queuing up for re-registration of their vehicles within Jammu and Kashmir. Political parties and trade bodies of J&K have expressed their resentment against the move, calling it “injustice” with people in the form of “double-taxation” on their vehicles.
Last week, the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) had issued an order asking all non-J&K registered vehicles to apply for the re-registration of vehicles within the UT of J&K, or else face strict action of seizure of such vehicles. In this process, the owners are forced to pay 9% of tax amount determined on the basis of IDV (Insurance Declared Value) of each vehicle.

KALEEM GEELANI