Cops blind' to beacon lights

Visakhapatnam: Unauthorised use of beacons and revolving lights atop cars remains a problem in North Andhra region as cops have turned blind eye on the violators. Worryingly even fraudsters and criminals are using the beacons to evade police checkups and indulging illegal activities in Vizag, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam districts. Recently Srikakulam police arrested four people belonging to various student and other organizations for posing as vigilance officers (education department) by travelling in Innova Car with blue beacon and resorted to extortion from private schools in North Andhra region. The arrested were included a Research Scholar of Andhra University Lagugu Govinda Rao, students Harish and Jagadeesh and Uttarandhra Political JAC convenor JT Rama Rao and two more in the gang Avinash and Naresh are still at large.  

In Vizag a real-estate businessman P Ramesh Naidu posed as IAS officer and flashed red-beacon on his car and put on Government Vehicle board duped  over  100 unemployed youth to the tune of Rs 3 crore by promising them employment in various sectors. Ironically, in the two incidents, the accused were arrested for extortion and duping unemployed youth, but the cops didn’t prevent them to use the beacons. The police in the region have come under severe criticism from various sections of people for fraudsters and unauthorised people are using beacons and indulging in traffic violations and illegal activities.  

A traffic police officer on condition of anonymity said that not only government officers and politicians are flashing the red-beacons atop their vehicles even though they are not entitled but also fraudsters are also using the beacons in the region. The rules make it mandatory to keep the beacons covered when the authorised individual is not using the car. Most often relatives of the persons are in the care and the beacons keep flashing. Unless put an end to beacon violators, fraudsters continue to use  beacons for their illegal activities, he added.

As per the Apex court norms As per the Supreme Court orders, no officer, not even District Collector, Commissioner of Municipal Corporations, Commissioner of Police, Superintendent of Police, MLAs, MPs and few other top officials in various department is eligible to use red beacons and the SC clearly mentioned that to give the facility only to heads of the executive, the legislature and judiciary and those holding Constitutional posts. Senior officers with traffic police wing and road transport authority said that some officers and politicians, who are not entitled the beacons, have removed beacons voluntary. However, some executives and politicians are using the beacon vehicles to show their influence, they said.

We don’t have a consolidated list of the officials and politicians who are authorized to use beacons on their vehicles and we will check with the Apex court directions and will check the misuse of the beacons, they added.