While they enjoy several special privileges, members of Parliament are set to be denied the most basic symbol of VIP status in the country: a red beacon atop their official vehicles. A special committee set up to look into the issue has recommended that MPs should not be allowed to sport the red beacons.Though many MPs have red lights atop their vehicles, they are not officially allowed this. A Rajya Sabha panel has been repeatedly asking for the privilege and has written twice to the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways wanting to know the grounds for allowing the same and why they had been left out. At a final meeting held last week, the committee set up to look into the matter — which has on board officials from the Home Ministry and Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways, apart from the Cabinet Secretariat and the Delhi traffic police — unanimously recommended that allowing the MPs the privilege would lead to serious enforcement problems and a massive increase in the number of vehicles allowed the same.The panel also had serious worries that once MPs were allowed red beacons, MLAs may demand the same. The committee also suggested that while the Chairman and members of the UPSC as well as the Central Vigilance Commissioner are permitted to use red beacons on their vehicles, following a 2002 notification, officials equivalent to them should not permitted to use the same, as is being done at present. States governments too have been told to limit their list of dignitaries entitled to red beacons. The Armed Forces, incidentally, came in for a special mention during the committee discussions for repeatedly flouting the norms related to use of red beacon, and for officials junior to the rank of General and Lt Generals sporting the same on their vehicles.One of the suggestions made by the committee to check the misuse was that the list of dignitaries entitled to use the red light flash be published in newspapers, to ensure proper enforcement as well as public awareness.At its first meeting in January this year, the panel had outlined that the sanctity and significance of the red beacon would be diluted if the group of people allowed to use it was stretched this way, and that enforcement to check misuse would become very difficult. The committee wants to use the Chandigarh model to handle the problem. The Chandigarh police ensure that all those eligible to use such flashers on their cars have special stickers on their car windows.
