By Express News Service CHENNAI: Incidents of vehicles with stickers such as press, advocates and political party flags flouting traffic rules are on the rise. The police in most cases remain silent, fearing that they might be cornered if they took action. Recalling an incident, personnel attached to the city traffic police said, “Once I was about to tow a car with an advocate sticker, which was parked right near the ‘no parking’ board. On seeing it, the owner shouted ‘Didn’t you see the sticker’ And when I tried to explain that the car was parked in the no parking zone, he called on his advocate friends.” EXPRESS ILLUSTRATION A senior police officer said, “We do not book them separately for misuse of stickers, but they fall under the category of defective number plates for which they are fined.” According to city traffic police statistics till April 10, 241 cases for defective number plates have been booked and Rs 10,24,300 has been collected as fine. In 2018, 28,682 cases were booked and Rs 29,30,800 fine was collected. And in the year of 2017, 44,300 cases were booked and Rs 46, 01,860 was collected as fine. A Sub-Inspector at the Velachery traffic signal said, “We rarely stop cars or bikes with those stickers. First of all, they do not admit their fault and instead start harassing us or misusing their power. ”The senior police officer also said, “We have given instructions that in the eyes of law, everyone is equal and just by having the stickers, traffic violators cannot be exempted from paying fine.”

Stay updated with all the Chennai Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.