LAHORE   -   Punjab Ombudsman Major (retd) Azam Suleman Khan has issued directions to the Excise, Taxation & Narcotics Control De­partment (ET&NC) Punjab and the National Radio & Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) to develop a viable and structured system for distributing vehicle number-plates to the public at the district level.

The current process of issuing vehicle number-plates is inadequate and, there­fore, an organised mechanism needs to be established. Additionally, he instructed the ET&NC department to provide a monthly report about the issuance and supply of number-plates to the public.

A statement, issued by a spokesman for the Ombudsman Punjab office on Tuesday, stated that the complaints received by the office of the ombudsman regarding prob­lems faced by the public due to delay in issu­ance and delivery of vehicle number-plates, the ombudsman sought a report from the secretary Excise & Taxation Department. 

In this regard, the ET&NC Department in­formed that it entered into an agreement with the NRTC for the issuance of vehicle number-plates in 2020, and initially, issued the purchase order for the supply of two mil­lion number-plates to it. Later, two purchase orders were also issued for issuance of three million more number-plates. The Excise De­partment informed that the own motion no­tice by Ombudsman Punjab had resulted in provision of a schedule by the NRTC for the supply of more number plates. The supply of number-plates is in progress and 152,086 plates had been prepared and supplied to the Excise Department between December 2022 to January 2023. The spokesman added that the issue of providing number-plates to over 2.2 million vehicle owners across the province would soon be resolved, in accordance with the instructions of the Ombudsman Punjab.