BENGALURU: To ensure better air quality in the city, the police, Transport Department and the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) have got together to ensure the whip is cracked on vehicles emitting excess pollutants.
At a high-level meeting between the departments recently, it was decided to constitute a three-member nodal officer team with a representative from each of these bodies. The team will conduct checks twice each week across the city and penalise owners of polluting vehicles.
Checks conducted between November 16 and December 18 by the KSPCB and the Transport Department revealed that more than one-fourth of diesel vehicles and 14 per cent of petrol vehicles violated emission norms.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic Planning, Raja Imam Kasim, told Express, “The job of monitoring the vehicles will be done by the Pollution Control Board and the Transport Department. We will provide security in the form of traffic cops or a sub inspector to those conducting these checks,” he said. Explaining the need for it, he said there have been instances of officials being manhandled by vehicle riders when they carry out checks.
Joint Commissioner of Environment and E-governance, Transport Department, C Mallikarjuna, said the fines that can be imposed on vehicles releasing emissions beyond the permitted levels have shot up over the last couple of years. “When a violator is booked for a first offence, we will fine `1,000. The second offence will invite a penalty of `2,000.” In the case of a repeat offender, the licence of the driver as well as the registration of the vehicle could be suspended.
Chief Environmental Officer S Nanda Kumar said, “The process of continuous monitoring involving the three government agencies will begin from January 1. These nodal officers will serve the role of coordinators for each department.”
Another KSPCB official said that carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons released by vehicles resulted in numerous respiratory and cardiovascular problems.
“Monitoring of vehicles need to be a continuous affair in the city to put an end to excess emissions of such products,” Nanda Kumar added.