BHUBANESWAR: The State Government on Friday decided to relax penalty for air and noise pollution under the new Motor Vehicles Act for a period of one month to create an adequate infrastructure to enable vehicle owners to get pollution under norm (PUC) certificates.“In view of the long queues for pollution test, the Government has decided not to charge Rs 10,000 as a penalty for air and noise pollution from violators for the next 30 days. This is effective from September 6,” Commerce and Transport Secretary G Srinivas told media persons here.
Urging people to get pollution testing certificates in next 30 days, Srinivas said traffic police and RTO officials should not harass commuters and vehicle owners for not furnishing PUC certificates. “The officials will have to pay double the amount as a penalty under the provisions of the new Act if found guilty,” he said.
The Parliament had passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019 which had provisions for hefty penalties for violations of traffic rules to improve road safety. The Bill got President’s assent on August 9 and is applicable from September 1. As per the provisions of the new Act, violation of PUC norm invites a fine of Rs 10,000 as against Rs 1,000 previously on the first violation and Rs 2,000 for the second one.
However, the imposition of the Act has come in for strong criticism from politicians cutting across party lines. While rural development, labour and employees’ state insurance minister Sushant Singh strongly criticised the way the Act is being implemented, deputy leader of the BJP legislature party Bisnu Charan Sethi pointed towards the Government’s failure to provide adequate facilities to obtain pollution certificate.
Senior Congress legislator Santosh Singh Saluja criticised the Government for implementing the new Act without launching an awareness drive. Stating that five states have decided not to implement the new Act, Saluja said people should have given a time limit. Such hefty fines would affect the poor people, he said and demanded that the fine amounts should be reduced.
While state secretary of CPI Asish Kanungo demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the issue, senior CPI(M) leader Janardan Pati said the transport federations of eastern states will meet at Puri on September 23 and 24 to chalk out a plan for “opposing the anti-people MV Act”.