Rs 12-lakh ‘VIP number’ for Rs 45K Vespa

Feb 29, 2012 - Tanveer Thakur |

Age Correspondent

Chandigarh

One can buy a brand-new SUV for Rs 12 lakhs, but that’s not the way everyone thinks, at least in Punjab, where everything considered “VIP” — a vehicle registration or a mobile number — comes at a premium.
Farmer Ricky Brar from Muktsar district has just shelled out Rs 12 lakhs to get a vehicle registration number of his choice (PB-30-J-0003). And the vehicle? A LML Vespa scooter, bought secondhand from a government employee for just Rs 45,000.

Ricky bid successfully for the “premium” number at a transport authority auction. The second-highest bi-dder, who was willing to pay Rs 10 lakhs, has a brand-new Mercedes.
Ricky, who already has a Mahindra Scorpio, also with a “VIP” number (PB-31-0007), wanted a scooter for day-to-day use. Since there was a one-month waiting period for a new scooter, he readily bought a secondhand one.
Ricky does not think it’s preposterous to pay such a huge sum for a scooter licence plate. “I can always have this number transferred to a car if I buy another one,” he said.
In the same auction, the number 0001 of the series went for Rs 3.91 lakhs, 0002 for Rs 1.11 lakh and 0009 for Rs 1.12 lakh. Such is the craze for single-digit numbers in Punjab, which are considered “VIP numbers”, that the state government auctions them to earn a lot of revenue. The craze for “VIP numbers” is evident from last year’s case of a man from Ludhiana who paid Rs 15 lakhs for a mobile number of his choice.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/130257" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-5d64f261c1a393c74cc5a0967768990b" value="form-5d64f261c1a393c74cc5a0967768990b" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85664918" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>