[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by aravind84

What i fail to understand is, these guys wont leave way for other vehicles to go as well. They would be driving in two lanes and no one else can overtake them. They would not be aware of the vehicles besides or behind them at any point.

They are so busy on the mobiles that they drift between lanes without being aware and for those behind them, it looks like they are purposely blocking our way. After many such incidents, the moment I see someone drifting across lanes, I know that they are on the phone and move away as far as I can.

[VW2010]

I really dont understand how can they even concentrate while riding a bike. I cannot for one ride my bike with hands free devices or blue tooth.

If needed i would rather stop my bike and use my phones.

Listening to my bulls thump as always been music to my ears. That helps me avoid these nonsense habit.

[ramzsys]

In the recent movie 'Vettai' the lead actor is talking to his brother through a mobile phone as he is riding the city with his two-wheeler.

Needless to say, our people draw a lot of inspiration from movies.

[Thad E Ginathom]

All over the world, people are influenced by their movie and TV heroes. If we try to use that in a positive way, some would say that it is propaganda and brainwashing, but it is brainwashing anyway...

[anekho]

Chennai Trekking Club is organising a massive beach clean up programme involving more than 1500 volunteers to clean up 15 km of coast line from Marina till Injambakkam on the 5th of February from 6 AM to 9 AM.

Share it spread the news.


ACTION PLAN
===========

5am - 500 to 1000 volunteers assemble in 11 pick up points across the city. Participants from other cities are most welcome to support this epic endeavor. (see below)

5-6am - Volunteers will be grouped in 15 Garbage Busting (GB) teams and teams will move to 15 designated beach zones between Marina till Injambakkam lead by CTC organizers/seniors.

6 am - Upon Arrival at beaches, Distribute garbage bags, gloves and strategise about how the teams will work together to overcome this Eco-challenge.

6-9am - Each of the teams will only have to clean a 1 km zone. This challenge will be accomplished successfully even before the sun rises high above our heads.

9am - After all that work, teams will gobble down yummy breakfast after which take there will be group photos with mountains of garbage bags so that the press can publish our beliefs and efforts In pictures. Those interested are welcome to walk, wade, jump or dive into the cool blue sea along our clean again tropical beaches.

10-11am - This will be followed by safe disposal of garbage following which we will return back to various the drop off points in the city.

ASSEMBLY POINTS & BEACH ZONES
==============================

Chennai Coastal Cleanup - Google Maps

Volunteers will be picked up at various assembly points across the city -

Adyar - Rainforest - 5:30am
Ashok Pillar - Udayam Theatre - 5am
Egmore - Railway station - 5:15am
Guindy circle - Mount Road opposite railway station - 5:15am
Kottivakam - Bharat Petroleum bunk - 5:30am
Koyambedu - petrol bunk opposite CMBT - 5am
Marina lighthouse - lighthouse - 6am
Tirunmangalam signal - Anna Nagar West bus depot - 5am
Tirunvanmyur - Adyar Bakery - 5:30am
Velachery - opposite Vijayanagar bus stop - 5:15am
Besant Nagar - Eliot beach - 5:50am


Volunteers will be split up in groups and allocated different beach zones for cleanup covering the entire Chennai coastal line from Marina till Injanmbakkam

AWARENESS/MEDIA
=================

Media and photographers will extensively cover the entire clean-up operation. As during previous cleanup drives we will try to get extensive media coverage to send a strong message to the general public on environmental awareness and preservation.

SCHOOLS, COMPANIES, EXTERNAL GROUPS
=====================================

We welcome schools, companies, external groups to join our mega-cleanup campaign. No need to register individually - just shoot an email to peter.vangeit@gmail.com with the group name and headcount you wish to participate. We would allocate a dedicate beach zone to your group.

SPONSORS
==========

We need sponsors for garbage bags and latex gloves. Any company or group or individual willing to sponsor (part of) the required expense please contact peter.vangeit@gmail.com. Companies interested to sponsor the volunteers with other memorables (cap, tee, ...) are also welcome.

Came across this just now. Anyone from TBHP participating?

[supremeBaleno]

Not sure about any TBHP-ians participating, but Peter, the founder of CTC, that organises these cleanup-drives (they have been doing this for a long time - not only Chennai, but places like Tada falls in AP) is a close friend since the time he landed in India in 1998. He did figure in one of our threads (IIRC bad driving), but that's more of a rare aberration given the work he does for the environment.

BTW, he used to be a bike guy (has 2 Bullet 500s) and many years ago used to ride to various places in India including Leh - the world's highest motorable road, Pune, Kerala etc. Infact, given his extensive travels in India, we can safely say that most Indians have not even seen 10% of the India he has seen. Today he is more of a Trekking guy and goes trekking almost all weekends.

There was a time when he had just come to India and was so enamoured with Pondicherry (who would not be?) that he used to ride down almost everyweekend, have lunch at his favourite continental restaurant there and ride back. Me and my friends joined him once (me riding my CD100 with pillion) and by the time we were back halfway (Fishermen's Cove), I remember being so exhausted that I just flopped on the beach. Ofcourse CD100 is not the bike for such 300km trips.

[vineetmanghani]

Got this email forwarded to me. Is this true? Couldn't find any news articles to this effect... (I've edited out the names to maintain privacy)

From: ******, ****
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 3:44 PM
To: ****-All
Subject: FW: Other state registered cars

There have been many cars ceased in last few weeks. Please keep in mind and ensure to get NOCs from your state RTOs before using the cars on road.

Thanks
***** **** | *****| +91 *****


From: *******, *****
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 2:24 PM
To: *******, *****
Subject: FW: Other state registered cars

Hi *****,
I have to leave to the RTO now, to sort out this issue with my car. Will log in from home as soon as this is done.

Thanks-*****

From: *******, *****
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:02 AM
To: ******
Cc: *****, *****
Subject: Other state registered cars

Not sure who else has a car with non TN registration, but there is a big drive going on to seize non TN registered vehicles.
They don't listen to any reason, but just seize the vehicle I have to go and pay the tax today for mine.
Tax is close to 7.5% (of the purchased value) for a 5 year old car
Thought I should inform you, because me and Srini had a chat about this couple of weeks back. Probably you might want to send out a larger message from HR, because it came in paper couple of days back.

Thanks-*****

[binand]

Originally Posted by vineetmanghani

There have been many cars ceased in last few weeks. Please keep in mind and ensure to get NOCs from your state RTOs before using the cars on road.

Hopefully not true. I have an MH registered car parked in Chennai at the moment, and the nearest I can take it out is end of April.

Then again, the law (which I don't agree with) allows one to use an out-station vehicle in a state for up to one year, as far as my understanding goes. So can't see how they can force one to pay tax.

[headers]

It is true and it is an OLD rule..

Other State vehicles can be seized if used for more than 15 days and not having valid reason for use.

What it means is if the user of the vehicle is travelling between states then it is OK, else it is NOT..you ought to get NOC from registered state and pay the tax again.

And it is very easy to target non TN vehicles in Chennai in any particular area.

The 15 day limit can max goto 1 month including Grace period.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by headers

It is true and it is an OLD rule..

Other State vehicles can be seized if used for more than 15 days and not having valid reason for use.

What it means is if the user of the vehicle is travelling between states then it is OK, else it is NOT..you ought to get NOC from registered state and pay the tax again.

And it is very easy to target non TN vehicles in Chennai in any particular area.

The 15 day limit can max goto 1 month including Grace period.

Any way to pay the tax without having noc?

Getting noc and re-registering the vehicle is a real pain. I'm having my KL registered bike in Chennai. Not sure what is the process now.

[headers]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Any way to pay the tax without having noc?

Getting noc and re-registering the vehicle is a real pain. I'm having my KL registered bike in Chennai. Not sure what is the process now.

AFAIK, NOC is only for paying TAX not re registering the vehicle

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by headers

AFAIK, NOC is only for paying TAX not re registering the vehicle

Sadly, no.

Thats why I had to cancel the NOC i had for the bike. RTO insisted the only way was to get the bike re-registered with TN registration. This was about 2 years back.

Further - once you obtain NOC - registration in home state (KL in my case) goes invalid. After 6 months, you could very well end up in a situation where both RTOs will deny the vehicle as under their jurisdiction. You need to cancel the NOC from the new RTO (Chennai in my case) and produce it in the original RTO to get the registration valid.

For cancelling the NOC - they made me pay the Road Tax for 6 months in Chennai from the date of NOC.

[binand]

Originally Posted by headers

It is true and it is an OLD rule..

Other State vehicles can be seized if used for more than 15 days and not having valid reason for use.

The 15 day limit can max goto 1 month including Grace period.

I did some research on this topic early in the morning (sleeplessness induced by concern for my poor car alone and miserable in TN).

Please see the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, Clause 47:

http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/mvact1988.pdf

When a motor vehicle registered in One State has been kept in another State, for a period exceeding twelve months, the owner of the vehicle shall [...] for the assignment of a new registration mark and shall present the certificate of registration to that registering authority :

Provided that an application under this sub-section shall be accompanied –

(i) by the no objection certificate obtained under section 48

[rest of clause snipped]

I don't see where 15 days come in. The law clearly says you need to re-register only if you exceed 12 months of stay in another state.

The other piece of law that governs is the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Taxation Act of 1974. A re-registered car under the above clause (ie, clause 47 of MV Act) falls under the definition given in Schedule 3, Part 2 of this act. For such a car, section 4 of this act says:

http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/TNMVTA1974.PDF

In respect of the motor vehicles specified in Part -II of the Third Schedule, the tax shall be paid either annually at the rates specified in the First Schedule or for the life time of such vehicles at the rates specified in Part II of the Third Schedule as the case may be, on a licence to be taken out for such vehicles for that year or for the life time, as the case may be.

It is clear that the tax is to be paid when "a license is taken out", ie, at the point of re-registration. Thus, you don't have to pay tax for the 12-month period when you needn't re-register either.

But of course, IANAL. YMMV.

[binand]

Originally Posted by headers

AFAIK, NOC is only for paying TAX not re registering the vehicle

Quite the opposite. NOC is for re-registering. It is a message from the source RTO to the receiving RTO that the vehicle is "clean" at source - ie, no dues, clear ownership, no accidents/cases etc. (obtaining the NOC involves getting a police clearance as well) - and that the source RTO as no objections to the receiving RTO registering the vehicle.

If you just want to pay tax, you just have to pay tax. There is no additional paperwork involved. Unless you also get re-registered, in which case you can optionally apply to get a pro-rated refund of the tax paid to the source state (good luck with that ;-)

[headers]

Originally Posted by binand

Quite the opposite. NOC is for re-registering. It is a message from the source RTO to the receiving RTO that the vehicle is "clean" at source - ie, no dues, clear ownership, no accidents/cases etc. (obtaining the NOC involves getting a police clearance as well) - and that the source RTO as no objections to the receiving RTO registering the vehicle.

If you just want to pay tax, you just have to pay tax. There is no additional paperwork involved. Unless you also get re-registered, in which case you can optionally apply to get a pro-rated refund of the tax paid to the source state (good luck with that ;-)

I just got our company vehicle shifted from a Chennai RTO to another RTO in TN and all I did was a change of address after getting a NOC from the registered RTO.

The NOC is only to verify that there are no pending issues against that vehicle as you mentioned.

The middlemen [read brokers] are the ones who confuse and suggest re registering as it is easier and more money for them. As I was particular in only a change of address, i got it done!

Thanks for all the inputs above