Red beacons go off from VIP cars

New Delhi: Days after the Union Cabinet decided to do away with the VIP culture, several states, including governors and chief ministers, have put a stop to the use of red and blue beacons.

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday midnight ordered an end to the use of red and blue beacon lights and has decided to cut back on security to VIPs.

However, emergency services like fire brigade, ambulances, vehicles of armed forces and police will be exempted from the ban.

The Election Commission has also removed all red and blue beacons all vehicles. “All blue and red beacons were removed from EC official vehicles,” an official spokesperson said.

In Odisha, all judges on Friday came to the high court without red beacons on their official vehicles. Three judges had removed the beacons on Thursday itself following the Centre’s decision to do away with VIP culture.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik was among the first in the state to remove the red beacon atop his vehicle on Wednesday evening. Several other high-ranking government officials, including the district collector, have removed the red beacons from their vehicles.

The red beacon light on Tamil Nadu governor Ch Vidyasgar Rao’s official car was removed on Friday.

Mr Rao directed his officials to remove the red beacon light from his car following the Union Cabinet decision headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “to do away with the VIP culture,” a Raj Bhavan release said.

The Union Cabinet had banned all red and blue beacon lights — seen to be a symbol of VIP culture — from official vehicles. The ban comes into effect from May 1.

The ban doesn’t exempt even vehicles of the country’s top dignitaries such as the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.

However, essential services like police, Army, ambulances and fire service would be exempted from the ban.

The Cabinet had banned all six categories of beacons — primarily red, blue and yellow. However, it was the red beacon which had been the symbol of elite VIP culture in the country.

After the cabinet had cleared the ban, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had tweeted: “Usage of red beacon tied us back to colonial legacy. With lal batti removal PM Narendra Modi’s vision of new India took a step forward”.

Following the cabinet decision, a slew of ministers and VIPs had taken to social media to publicize the removal of their red beacon lights.