Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has directed transport and environment departments to make stringent plans to check alleged manipulation in issuance of Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates.
"As per our information, local PUC centres constituted at petrol pumps take extra money and manipulate pollution readings of the vehicles. So the government has asked the transport and environment departments to make stringent plans to check whether genuine certificates are issued," a senior Delhi government official said today.
"All the PUC centres will be asked to make the details of vehicles checked by them public on the (environment department) website. Random checks will also be conducted to see if PUC centres are working efficiently," he said.
The move was taken in view of the rising pollution level in the city and to address the increasing complaints of manipulation during pollution check at petrol pumps.
Concerned over air pollution in Delhi, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had banned all petrol vehicles more than 15 years old and diesel vehicles more than 10 years old.
Delhi government has also directed all car and motorbike dealers in the national capital to set up pollution measuring facilities on their premises.
"At present, Delhi does not have sufficient numbers of PUC centres. The government has issued a direction asking all the city's car and motorbike dealers to install pollution checking centres at their workshops," said a senior government official.
Delhi government has also asked Delhi Dialogue Commission, an advisory body to the government, to give their recommendations on how to effectively implement the checking of issuance of PUC certificates.
