KOCHI: Soaked in perspiration, tired after a day’s work, car owners swarmed at TVS automobiles in Edappally. You may think there is a discount scheme on offer, but barge your head inside for a sneak peak of the scene and you can see several car owners making inquiries about scraping the tinted stickers off their car windows. As they contemplate, a State Government Ambassador car hurries by, with almost pitch-black windows! The Supreme Court order was to be implemented by May 5, so what is stopping the government, the policemen and the people?“We have not made it strict, as of now,” says Deputy Commissioner, T Balakrishna Pillai. “Goons and those guilty have been conveniently commuting to and fro behind dark windows. It is to curb this that the Supreme Court came up with such an order. Right now we are just focused on spreading awareness regarding it.”Most metros have taken it up seriously owing to the prevailing crime statistics. But in Kerala, people would like to pretend that they are in a safe state. But, with 137 abduction and kidnapping cases, during the last six months, it may be time to reconsider. At least 20 percent of these would have used a tinted glass windowed car. If we can reduce the murder attempts even by one percent, wouldn’t people cooperate?Nagarjuna, a marketing manager with Flytxt Technologies, definitely will. “The pleasure of traveling in a car is seeing the world outside and in letting the sunshine in. I own a car which has no tinted glass. I agree with the fact that there is a security concern which needs to be addressed if not solved,” says Naga as he increases the volume of ‘The smiths’ song in his blue Micra.Arun Murali Manush stands on the other side of the line. He lectures about the heat and endless summer. But poke him a little more to realize that his major concern is privacy!Advocate Sicy Cyriac is in a training class when we ring her up, in hushed tones she tells us, “With rising terrorist activities it is advisable to have plain glass windows. As of now there are no punishments or penalties for those violating the rule,” she says. She made it a point to remove the dark sticker from her car and also compelled her father to do the same.It will cost you just Rs 220 to do so.Though car repair centres are reaping gold at the moment due to this sudden rule, in the long term it amounts to a huge loss. According to Varun V Kumar of TVS automobiles, to put tinted stickers on the windows, they charge Rs 1200.There are few who haven’t heard of such a court order, lets feed these lines into their system. Even to break the rules, it is necessary to know them!Right now, most are caught between ‘to do’ or ‘not to’ and some are hoping that the brouhaha will fizzle out. If the rule is implemented, with a fine, soon along with helmet-less riders, you will find the tinted glass car owners putting sudden breaks, frantically turning their steering wheels around and wriggling out, at the sight of a parked police jeep on the roadside.
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