PUC certificate must for refuelling vehicles in Delhi from October 25

The Delhi government has said that a valid Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate will be mandatory for refuelling vehicles at filling stations across the city from October 25, a move aimed at curbing vehicular emissions ahead of winter when air pollution peaks in the Capital.

The announcement was made by Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai who said that the environment department will soon issue a notification.

“We had issued a public notice seeking suggestions from general public in this regard on March 3, 2022, and then we issued notices to all the departments concerned on March 14, 2022. Suggestions from departments as well as citizens were received till May 2, 2022. We have also held a joint meeting of traffic police, transport department and environment department on September 29, in which we decided to enforce this provision,” the environment minister said. He added that citizens are being provided 25 days to update PUCs for their vehicles.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier announced a 15-point winter action plan to tackle the annual winter pollution crisis in Delhi when the city breathes its most polluted air owing to a range of factors such as local emissions, stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring states and meteorological factors that leads to poor dispersion of pollutants.

An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in November last year said that vehicles are the biggest contributor to local particulate matter in Delhi.

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Rai said that meetings are being held with traffic police and the transport department officials to ensure that there are no queues at the filling stations. “In the next one week, we will share the entire plan,” Rai said.

Officials aware of the development said that the transport department is expected to issue a notification on October 3, and added that the government departments will be notified separately.

Last year too, the government had launched a crack down on polluting vehicles and those running without valid PUC certificate. The government deployed teams at petrol pumps to conduct random checks on vehicles coming to fill fuel. During the crackdown last year, the state transport department issued at least 850,000 challans against vehicles without a valid PUC.

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PUC certificate is a mandatory document certifying that the vehicle’s tailpipe emission falls within permissible limits.A vehicle plying without a valid PUC certificate is liable to be prosecuted under Section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles Act and may lead to imprisonment of up to three months or fine of up to ₹10,000, or both. Delhi has around 966 PUC checking centres spread over 10 zones. Random checks are also done by Pollution Level Test Inspectors to ensure that PUC centres are issuing accurate certificates.

The minister, however, did not comment on the exact number of vehicles operating without a PUC certificate in the city, but added that the government will share the “whole picture” over the next one week. Earlier in July 2022, HT had reported nearly 1.7 million vehicles registered with the state transport department were without a valid PUC certificate.

Rai also announced the launch of a Green War Room on October 3, to implement the 15-point Winter Action Plan, and said that anti-dust campaign will be started from October 6. “We will start free spraying of Pusa bio-decomposer to prevent stubble burning from October 10. The Delhi government will strictly implement the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap). However, a joint action plan should be made for all NCR states,” Rai said.

On 30th September, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced a 15-point winter action plan for the city. “CAQM has issued the modified GRAP system and the Delhi Government has decided to implement it strictly. It should also be implemented in a similar manner across the entire NCR. We are now in a position to take action three days prior to deterioration of air level on the basis of forecast. All the departments will come into action swiftly because the change in pollution level in the winter season could be forecasted to an extent, but the rain and wind direction also has an important role to play,” Rai said. He added that at several places in NCR, the GRAP system gets announced but there is not much seriousness about its implementation.

Under dust control measures, the government has stated that the construction sites with an area greater than 500 sqm would be mandatorily registered on the web portal developed by the Environment Department. “If they show any negligence in registration, they will be shut down in case the AQI level increases,” he added.

Rai said that the coverage of bio-decomposer will be increased from 4000 acre to 5000 acre in a sprinkling drive starting from October 10th. He appealed to the farmers on the Delhi-Haryana border in the areas like Narela, Bhawana and Mundka area where reports of stubble burning were seen last year, to use bio-decomposers to decompose the stubble. The minister requested the governments of NCR areas to prepare their own Winter Action Plan and form special teams for its monitoring and implementation.