"Not Going To Challan You": Nagpur Cops Ask Moon Lander Vikram To Respond

Even as the Indian Space Research Organisation continues to make efforts to establish link with Chandrayaan 2's 'Vikram' lander, now lying on the lunar surface after a hard-landing, a moving note for the spacecraft by the Nagpur City Police on Monday has taken the Internet by storm.

Pleading to 'Vikram' to respond, Nagpur police assured it would not challan the lander for "breaking the signals".

The heartwarming tweet seems to be inspired from the recent implementation of hefty fines for traffic violations in the country after the amended Motor Vehicle Act came into force on September 1.

Dear Vikram,
Please respond.
We are not going to challan you for breaking the signals!#VikramLanderFound#ISROSpotsVikram @isro#NagpurPolice

— Nagpur City Police (@NagpurPolice) September 9, 2019

The sheer size of fines that people have been asked to pay for violating road rules in the past few days has generated waves of shock and concern on social media. In some of the more stark examples last week, a truck driver in Odisha was charged over Rs 86,000 and an auto-rickshaw driver was fined Rs 59,000.

Many Twitter users praised the Nagpur Police for its creative tweet. The post has since garnered over 8,000 retweets and more than 27,000 likes. 

"I knew it.. Nagpur police is on moon..." a Twitter account wrote. "Yes, indeed , Hopes of 133 crore Indians attached to #Vikram . It's truly an exception! And YOUR tweet is EXCEPTIONAL!" another user said.

Some Twitter users were, however, not pleased.

"So now Indian police indulging in flippant & frivolous posts for time pass?  This is not a police job to pass these offhand comments through Twitter," someone replied to the tweet. 

"It is not in your jurisdiction anyway," another quipped.

ISRO lost contact with the Vikram Lander, one of three components of the Chandrayaan 2, minutes before its soft touchdown on the lunar surface in the early hours on Saturday.

ISRO found the location of Lander Vikram on the surface of the moon on Sunday after the orbiter clicked its thermal image. ISRO chairman K Sivan said efforts to establish contact with the lander were continuing.

It was 2.1 km above the moon's surface when the lander lost contact with the ground station at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru.