The new tender called by the government to select a vehicle number plate supplier has removed special security symbles that were included in the previously produced number plates, according to officials at the Department of Motor Transport.
Several ‘lion’ emblems and the letters and logos D.M.T. on the current number plates have been removed from the new tender, they say. Removing these emblems from the new tender could also pose a threat to national security, department officials say.
The Department of Motor Transport, which claims that these security emblems have been removed at the request of a supplier, also states that Sri Lanka, which is heading towards the new world, should increase security measures.
The employees say that there were major corruptions behind the vehicle number plate tender in the past, and that politicians and some former high-ranking officials of the Motor Transport Department were involved in them, and that some are still receiving commissions from the number plates.
When ‘Lankadeepa’ inquired about this from a high-ranking official of the Motor Transport Department, he said that the tender call will be implemented entirely by the Ministry of Transport and Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation, and steps have been taken to remove several special security measures from the new tender.
The official said that steps have been taken to remove several security measures due to the increase in the price of vehicle number plates due to those security measures, and added that since there is no system to check whether a vehicle’s number plate is fake when it is running on the road, removing the security measures is not a problem.