Numerology - Vehicle registration numbers totalling to eight banned in Tamilnadu RTO

[Murugan]

Recently a friend went to an RTO office in Chennai to choose a number for his new car. He did not want the sum total of the last four digits of the registration number to add up to eight as he has this superstitious belief that '8' is an unlucky number for him. He was informed by the personnel at the RTO that he did not have to bother about it is as the RTO/ Government has banned the issuing of such numbers! Apparently when a new series of vehicle registration numbers is ready to be released one of the first things that is done is to block these numbers totalling to eight. These numbers will not be issued to state transport buses or other government vehicles also. Friends in Salem and Vellore said it is the same in their towns too.

I find this really weird. Should our government promote such beliefs even indirectly? What is the situation in the rest of the country/ world?

[CorsaLove]

Never heard of before that the RTO is doing it in any other City or state. But it is ridiculous that the government is promoting such beliefs.

[lamborghini]

wow!!
this is really wierd..
in mumbai, we specifically asked for the number 8 for one of our cars because it was the lucky number according to Feng Shui..
otherwise we try getting numbers that add up to 10..

[undead]

This is an old news. But if you want to get a number which totalls '8' you need to pay extra amount like you do for the fancy numbers.

[tifosikrishna]

Originally Posted by undead

This is an old news. But if you want to get a number which totalls '8' you need to pay extra amount like you do for the fancy numbers.

i agree with the above statement. This is in practice for quite sometime and i believe such practices are not peculiar to TN alone. I have heard that you cannot find door no. 13 in UK because the number is considered to be unlucky.

[mezereo]

its ok to have such beliefs or gut feelings that '8' is unclucly.
but isnt that weird for RTO to promote such things

[gd1418]

Personal beliefs and followings are a different matter altogether. But a State Govt. or any democratic Govt., practising & promoting superstitious beliefs & practices is deplorable..

[flipsyde]

what next ..... higher insurance premiums for cars which have registration plates totalling to 8??

mind you this is after you pay a premium to get a number which no one else wants in the first place!!!! so kinda makes the word premium redundant.

[simplythebest]

The reason why this happens is simple...

Numbers are supposed to be allocated randomly. Otherwise you have to pay an official premium for designated 'fancy' numbers.

Very few people want a number totalling to 8.

So what happens?
grease the hand of the RTO chap to ensure that it doesn't happen.
Or in some cases, you figure this out after registration, and try to change it (unsucessfully).

Due to these problems, the govt decided to not issue any numbers totalling to 8. if someone wants it, they can request it and get it.
however if the request is a designated 'fancy' number they have to pay a premium.

I think it is one of the few sensible things done by the govt.

[esteem_lover]

This was done long back & the reason was to prevent RTOs from squeezing money out of the folks who wanted to avoid getting the number 8. It was regular practice in all RTOs to take a little something to avoid giving you the number 8. My father did not pay this amount for 2 of the scooters we bought & we were promptly given the numbers 5003 & 7181.

[hrag]

Well, it was a democratic move - they listened to the voice of the people. In TN, one of the first things people do when they see your new vehicle is to calculate totals looking at the number plate. This is done even before they congratulate you.

It is common to receive compliments such as 'you have got a good number - congratulations' (note: good number, not fancy number).

[ankit.jhamb]

i think the authorities had the above thing i their mind,due to which they implemented the above rule.
OT:for me,the registration no. total of all cars is 8.

[indian21r]

Hmm That is quite surprising that state is following that. But again as someone mentioned number 13, I find this missing at a lot of places. There is no 13th floor in the place I work.

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by indian21r

Hmm That is quite surprising that state is following that. But again as someone mentioned number 13, I find this missing at a lot of places. There is no 13th floor in the place I work.

Theres no sector 13 in noida either!

I used to live in flat no. 13 but was forced by my parents to change it! They didnt want to move to another flat that totalled to 13 either. So theres some logic as to why govt should be paranoid about such things. Lots of people in India do believe in all this.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by joslicx

Theres no sector 13 in noida either!

I used to live in flat no. 13 but was forced by my parents to change it! They didnt want to move to another flat that totalled to 13 either. So theres some logic as to why govt should be paranoid about such things. Lots of people in India do believe in all this.

I think the reason has been lost in all this House No.13 stuff. The reason why the govt did away with the 8 is to prevent corruption in that pretext. Please refer my earlier post.