NEW DELHI: A total of 120 enforcement teams of the transport department will keep a hawk eye on visibly polluting vehicles on the national capital’s roads from Saturday, even as notices through text messages have been sent to around 19 lakh owners of vehicles without a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificate. “Instructions have been issued to all our enforcement teams to take stringent action against visibly polluting vehicles. There is zero tolerance for such vehicles in the Graded Response Action Plan order,” said Navlendra Kumar Singh, joint commissioner (enforcement), transport department. Singh said the number of vehicles penalised for being visibly polluting and emitting smoke was usually nominal, but now directions had been given to take strict action against such vehicles. “Any vehicle that is found to be visibly polluting will not be spared,” he added. He said 120 teams — 84 in Innovas and 36 on motorbikes — have been deployed across the city, including at interstate bus terminals (ISBTs). “The number of teams has been increased and the enforcement by the transport department is now visible on the roads,” Singh said. The teams deployed outside ISBTs are checking PUC certificates of buses arriving from neighbouring states, which have been requested by the Delhi government not to send old buses to the national capital. The Delhi government also wrote to other states in June to deploy only BS VI-compliant buses in Delhi from October 1. Singh also said the department was taking strict action against 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles. If found plying on roads, these vehicles are sent for scrapping. “From 40 to 50 old vehicles in a day, the number has gone up to 80 to 90 per day recently. Scrappers are attached to every team and they send a crane within five minutes, which is used to tow the vehicle away for scrapping.” He also said that owners of more than 19 lakh two-wheelers, cars, taxis and commercial vehicles running in Delhi without valid PUC certificates were sent notices on Friday. The template to send the text messages has been prepared with the help of National Informatics Centre. Recently, environment minister Gopal Rai announced that vehicle owners would have to produce a valid PUC certificate to get fuel at the city’s filling stations from October 25. The decision is part of the government’s winter action plan. Rai said that while the government had prioritised curbing of vehicular in the recently announced 15-point winter action plan, the decision on PUC certificates will also help in the winter fight.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-hunt-for-vehicles-without-puc-paper-is-on-visibly-polluting-ones-on-radar/articleshow/94713895.cms