Editor,
It is common knowledge that purchasing a vehicle in India is a massive financial commitment. A buyer pays anywhere from 18% to 40% in taxes, alongside hefty insurance premiums, road taxes, RTO registration fees, etc. The government collects substantial revenue from every single legitimate vehicle sale.
Yet, given the current state of law and order regarding vehicular crime, a troubling question is beginning to surface in the public consciousness: Is the administration deliberately turning a blind eye to the black market of stolen vehicles simply to drive up the sales of new cars?
In today’s digital age, if law enforcement truly possessed the willpower, tracking down stolen vehicles would be highly manageable. There is simply no excuse for a stolen car to be driven freely on public roads. We possess the technological advantage to verify a vehicle’s legality within minutes and apprehend the culprits on the spot.
Despite this, every day brings new reports of vehicles being stolen across Arunachal Pradesh, while the recovery rate remains dismally low. Worse still, it is an open secret that Arunachal – along with other Northeastern states – has effectively become a safe haven and a massive black market for vehicles stolen from north India and other parts of the country.
To combat this menace, I would like to strongly suggest two critical implementations for the Arunachal Pradesh Police:
- Establish a dedicated anti-theft task force: The state must form a specialised task force singularly focused on tracking and recovering stolen vehicles. These officers should be granted backend log-in access to the mParivahan and Vahan databases. By empowering this task force to conduct random spot-checks and instantly scan registration numbers, officers will be able to view a vehicle’s complete, unhidden history in real-time. This guarantees on-the-spot verification of a vehicle’s legality within minutes, leaving thieves with nowhere to hide.
- Develop a centralised state-wide recovery portal: There is a glaring communication gap when a vehicle is actually recovered. The police department must launch a common, real-time portal accessible and updatable by every single police station across Arunachal. Whenever a stolen vehicle is seized, its details should be uploaded immediately. This will streamline the recovery process, eliminate bureaucratic delays, and ensure that rightful owners are notified much faster than the current fragmented system allows.
The implementation of these two straightforward, technology-driven steps will drastically reduce vehicle theft, dismantle the interstate black market, and significantly boost recovery rates. It is time for the authorities to prove that they are committed to protecting the hard-earned assets of the citizens, rather than just collecting taxes on them.
Musa Bhai