Non-KA owners use social media to avoid checking drives

Post info about location, roads and timing of drives to warn others

Owners of non-KA vehicles are now taking to social media and other web-based tools to alert each other and get information about where and when enforcement drives are being carried out to avoid being caught red-handed by Transport department officials.

On a Facebook page titled ‘justice for non-KA vehicle owners’, which has more than 33,000 members, users post regular updates about areas where there are heavy checking drives. In fact, one of the posts updated by a member reads, “Heavy checking near Wipro Gate-12, Neeladri Road, Electronic City Phase I.”

This update was posted on the same day drives were carried out in by the Transport department near Wipro's campus in Electronic City.

Many techies are using social media to warn each other about the location, roads and timing such drives to avoid getting caught by the enforcement teams.

Transport department officials  acknowledge the phenomenon and say that the usage of these web-based tools has gone up ever since the department resumed the drive against non-KA vehicle owners, who have not paid lifetime taxes for plying across Karnataka.

An official from the department told Deccan Herald: “We are aware of the fact that some group of people are alerting each other on WhatApp and Facebook etc about where and when we conduct drives. But for how long can they escape? Sooner or later, if lawbreakers do not pay taxes as per the law of land, they will be caught.”

Transport officials usually carry out drives in IT corridors and surrounding areas such as Bannerghatta Road, Koramangala, Electronics City, Hebbal, KIA Road, Outer Ring Road, among other areas to nab maximum outsider cars.

The State government had issued a notification about collecting lifetime taxes from non-KA vehicles plying on City roads but within a few months, the peeved out station vehicle owners moved High Court seeking relief.