CHENNAI: The Transport Minister’s announcement that the long-pending implementation of the use of High Security Registration Plates (HSRP) for vehicles in the state has come as a jolt to the numerous sticker shops in the city. Though the plan to bring about a uniform licence plate system in the country has been debated ever since the Central Government first passed an order in 2001, it has taken more than a decade for it to take off here. “When they first started talking about licence plates with a hologram, we thought they were joking. Then around five years back they made the announcement again,” says Ahamed Riaz, who has been in the vehicle sticker business since 1991. This time, though, Minister Senthil Balaji’s statement that the HSRP will come into force by the end of the year cannot be taken as lightly, he adds. “This government has been sanctioning schemes very fast, so we are worried.”Once the HSRP comes through, all licence plates will be printed through nodal centres operated by a central contractor according to the Centre’s guidelines. This will pretty much signal the end for all private licence plate sticking. While the state maintains that this is to curb the incidence of vehicle theft and false registration numbers, this doesn’t make too much sense to the sticker dealers, “Two years ago, when they clamped down on the fancy lettering on plates and made everyone follow the standard font we lost all incentives. Now they say this will keep thieves away,” says Riaz.Though innovative designs, full body stickering for cars, radical fender tattoos and the like are the big business for most sticker shops, it is the licence plate work that is their bread and butter, he reveals. “Though the big car jobs net us about `500-5000, how many can we get in a day?” he asks. Instead, based on their proximity to an RTO office, they get anywhere between 20 and 40 vehicle number plates per day, which is great business. “Nowadays we charge about `60 for a single plate so you can see this is very important to us,” says Bagiyam, who works at a sticker shop in Anna Nagar.So what will they do to survive? “Well, we will have to raise the price for stickering and maybe also downscale the number of workers. It used to be an art at one point of time, when we sat with customers and drew the number plates the way they wanted it. Now it's a struggle to even print standard ones,” he says with a sigh
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