[genesis]

A fellow BHPians posting a few days ago about having to give 100 rupees to a cop for not having a yellow sticker on his lights brought to mind a similar episode around six months ago when I had halted in Ahmedabad during the drive from Delhi to Mumbai. I stopped ask a cop for directions, and instead of being helpful he pulled me aside and said he would have to fine me since I did not have a yellow 'reflector' sticker on my headlamp/s.

On arguing that my Innova had delhi plates, and hence how could he expect every car coming into Gujarat to have one, he hemmed and hawed for some time and finally let me go for 50 rupees and even gave explicit directions to my hotel. (I did not have the strength to argue after a 10-11 hour drive).

Two questions:
1> What are those yellow stickers on the headlights of Gujarat cars are for?
2> Is there really any rule where every car passing through towns in Gujarat to have the stickers or was the cop just collecting his dinner allowance?

[dushmish]

Good thread Genesis. Gujarat has yellow stickers, Rajasthan has Black ones, Chandigarh has its own rules, and I am sure there are a few more states having similar set of rules. What happened to my fundamental right of freedom of movement within the country?

If a yellow sticker is so important and saves lives, why not all the car manufacturers fix it from the factory and send it? I just hope some Gujarati Bureaucrat reads this. May be it will fall in the right ears.

Intersate / across states travel becomes so difficult with such changes in law as you cross states.

[aaggoswami]

We are from Baroda and we have ended up paying money to officers because our car did not have that strip. We never bothered about it, but we have to visit A'bad often, so one evening we were caught and dad payed Rs. 50, there was a person with yellow color and that was painted on right headlamp.

If this is not enough, we crossed one signal when 10 secs were remaining. Suddenly the traffic from other side thought it was the perfect time to start driving and not to wait for their signal to turn green. We were in the middle and struck. Without our fault, we payed Rs. 100.

I am not sure if that really helps, but yes, we can have similar laws considering the level of corruption.

[Rajesh Rawal]

While crossing into rajasthan from ambaji (gujrat) i was stopped for not having yellow sticker as well ,i found it amusing as the guy said 'never mind sir if you dont have it ,we will just put a yellow line for the records' ,i did have to pay him inr 100 though for all that jazz.(could have negotiated but was too excited to get into rajasthan)

he infact even suggested how to get the yellow paint removed.

so it was quite funny one headlight of mine had this vertical yellow paint line (about 3 inches long) and other one didnt have any.

beauty treatment for my headlights in the name of law i must say.

jai ho narendra modi

[Rudra Sen]

What is this yellow sticker business all about? Can someone put up a picture of this? How exactly does this help?

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

What is this yellow sticker business all about? Can someone put up a picture of this? How exactly does this help?

Rudra sir,

look at any travelogue of mr Ramkya. On his scorpio's headlight, there is yellow sticker.

How exactly does this yellow sticker help? i am sure, even mr. Modi don't know.

[Rajesh Rawal]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

How exactly does this yellow sticker help? i am sure, even mr. Modi don't know.

isnt orange the favourite colour of mr modi

in my part of the world yellow is the colour of chandrababu naidu ,maybe its his way of making inroads into gujrat,dont be surprised if tdp wins some seats in modiland this time

the only logic of the yellow sticker i can think of is to avoid those blind glares to the others while one drives with high beames.

[F50]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

What is this yellow sticker business all about? Can someone put up a picture of this? How exactly does this help?

I think this is what they are talking about.

Picked it from Google.

Originally Posted by Rajesh Rawal

the only logic of the yellow sticker i can think of is to avoid those blind glares to the others while one drives with high beames.

Even this is the reason I know of

[JayD]

I've seen this stickeer in some GM cars which some mags have tested. I used to wonder what these were! Can someone tell me what purpose does this serve??

[hvkumar]

I have faced this problem only if I go into Ahmedabad city, but not in the rest of the highways of Gujarat. My Scorpio too now has a permanent yellow sticker - last time I was in Ahmedabad, I was harassed by every cop at every junction, and I had to tip my way through and finally dodged the cops and ran to the accessories shop (thanks to Ramky and Joy) to buy the yellow sticker.

I faced the same problem in Punjab, and have paid through my nose to thwart off the harassment by Punjab cops, who are definitely the worst of their kind in India, along with cops from Tamil Nadu.

[absynthguzzler]

Originally Posted by Rudra Sen

What is this yellow sticker business all about? Can someone put up a picture of this? How exactly does this help?

Same query here , and also is this rule copied from another country where in they have concluded it works as it's meant to ? or is it our own rulebook writers that have decided on it without technical reasoning!.

[predatorwheelz]

I have stayed in Ahmedabad for about 2 years. Every car sold there comes with a yellow sticker pasted on the outer side of the headlights. It carries the name of the dealer who sold the car. Its a surefire way of checking whether the car is originally from Gujarat.

A car registered outside Gujarat will obviously not carry yellow stickers. The cops are wrong in charging money for it.

[sgiitk]

This is rub@@@h. Stickers, paint etc are not required as per the Motor Vehicle Act of 1989. In fact they amount to interfering with the safety equipment of the vehicle.

[kalpeshc]

The yellow sticker is supposed to be flushed to the edge and hence restrict the spread of the high beams to the car's right (oncoming lane).

FYI - Maruti dealers in Surat also have a practice of having the Suzuki logo printed on one side of the number plate. My relative entering Mumbai was fined for the same and was asked to put a white piece of paper covering it.

[esteem_lover]

I guess people drive in reverse in Gujarat, why else would anyone need a reflector sticker on his headlamps ?