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Journalism of Courage
The West Bengal government has decided to withhold the pollution certificates of vehicles that have not cleared road tax dues and violation fines.
The state transport department has notified that that any vehicle produced at an Auto Emission Testing Centres (AETC) for Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) can be entertained only if the vehicle “is free from any demand of tax, fine, penalty and pending e-challan (except those forwarded to virtual court).”
A per the notification, all AETCs have been directed to carry out the requisite test of the vehicle, but allowed to issue the requisite certificate only after ensuring that all pending government dues such as tax, fine, penalty, pending e-challan etc. have been cleared.
“The AETCS shall be liable to be penalised if found to be violating conditions imposed under certain provisions under Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 and Clause 6(C) of Notification No. 2731-WT dated 10.07.2019,” it read.
Earlier, the transport department had introduced a new version of its web-enabled centralised app to ensure that vehicles are present at Automated Emission Testing Centres (AETC) while obtaining Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCC).
A senior transport department officer said that huge road tax arrears are incurring heavy loss on state Exchequer. “On the other hand, many vehicles violate traffic and other rules but continue to ply on roads without paying fine. The interesting part is that the police cannot force vehicle owners to pay road tax. Hence, it is difficult to recover the dues,” the officer remarked.
He further said that the new system enables the police to book a driver of the vehicle without a pollution certificate. “Now, vehicle owners would be compelled to clear due road tax and other fines before getting a pollution certificate. Without pollution certificate one cannot be on the road,” he said.
Shovan Bhattacharya, a resident of South Kolkata, said that though it will be helpful to government to recover their dues and increase their fund it amounts to harassment of common man.
“Generally the owner of a car always pays road tax in time. But, the problem is many times when police fine us we do not even know where and why they have fined us. We get time to clear the fines and also get an opportunity to move court. But now it has become tough because without pollution certificate we cannot go anywhere,” Bhattacharya said.
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