Bhubaneswar: In the wake of the problems faced by vehicle owners in obtaining 'Pollution Under Check' (PUC) certificate, Odisha government today announced that checking of PUC certificates will be relaxed for a month.
Transport secretary G Srinivasan informed, "Many people do not have the PUC certificate for which it has been decided to initiate steps to address the issue. Now vehicle owners can obtain the certificate through online mode or else apply for the certificate manually."
The traffic officials have been asked to consider even the manual PUC certificate for a month, he said, further pointing that the officials will not harass the vehicle owners for PUC, unnecessarily.
If any official charges penalty even by mistake, then the concerned official will have to pay penalty, and if required the penalty from the official would be double the amount he has levied on a vehicle owner, informed Srinivasan.
The vehicle owners now have one month time to obtain PUC certificates and to facilitate this, the government has initiated steps to provide different pollution checking centres or private organisations to check pollution-level of vehicles.
Meanwhile, Odisha Minister Sushant Singh has showed concerns over the implementation of the Motor Vehicles Act though it has come to force across the country. Singh stated that there are loopholes in the MV Act.
Strongly opposing its sudden implementation, the Minister said, "Penalties levied on owners for all types of vehicles is the same which is unlawful. Also, such hefty fines have triggered panic among all the commuters."
"People should have been alerted before the implementation of the Act. There's a need to reconsider the norms and bring relaxation on fines as poor people are now afraid to drive vehicles," the minister added.