Most of the motorized vehicles operating in Nepal bear hand-written number plates, a unique practice in this day and age of digital technology.

The government of Nepal wants to switch to embossed number plates as part of the concept of a Digital Nepal and plans to install 2.5m embossed plates in as many vehicles out of 4m vehicles in operation across the country.

As per a revised agreement with the government, a US-Bangla joint venture company tasked with installing the new plates has to install 2.49m embossed plates in the first phase—within November 27 this year.

But stakeholders like transporters, commoners, linguistic rights groups and data security specialists have a lot of reservations regarding the government plan.

For their part, transporters have urged the public not to switch to embossed plates till the government addresses their concerns, including practical difficulties involved and the lack of supporting infrastructure. They have warned that the government will be solely to blame for the consequences if it tries to enforce its will.

Other concerns include a tardy service, high charges associated with installation of embossed plates, the use of English language instead of Nepali, given that traditional number plates are in Nepali, and data security of motorists, bikers and drivers in a day and age where technology has become a double-edged sword. Also, there’s a feeling among members of the public that the use of English language in number plates is part of a sinister design to undermine and discourage the use of Nepali, the official national language of Nepal that uses the Devnagari script.

The government’s intent to enforce the embossed system, come hell or high water, with no regard for public concerns has made the citizenry more suspicious vis-à-vis the former’s designs, perceived or otherwise.

Granted that the new system is likely to contribute to traffic management, curb theft of vehicles,  lead to the recovery of stolen vehicles and improve road safety. Instead of a top-down approach, the government should have taken a bottom-up approach, sensitizing the people about this technology, its benefits and shortcomings, and bothered to address the concerns of the stakeholders to a maximum possible extent. The government, instead, chose to impose its plan in a manner befitting benevolent dictators, who impose their ‘pious wishes’ on the citizenry every now and then.  

It's time for the government to eat the humble pie once again and address the concerns of the stakeholders by giving up its my way or highway attitude.