Delhi government’s database isn’t updated or is ‘malfunctioning’.
New Delhi: People having their vehicles registered in states other than Delhi are facing difficulty in obtaining a Pollution under Control (PUC) certificate from the Delhi government because its database isn’t updated or is “malfunctioning.” People are being compelled to go to nearby states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to obtain their PUC certificates. The new rule has generated consternation among car owners in Delhi. Several cars registered in neighbouring states, including Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh, are being turned away from petrol pumps on Pusa Road since their vehicles are not registered in the PUC database.
In order to get a better understanding of the situation on the ground, The Sunday Guardian visited a number of petrol pumps in the city. The correspondent found out that pollution control centres at various petrol stations were well aware of their responsibilities and cooperative in providing information about the new regulation, collecting vehicle information and assisting owners in getting pollution certificates.
For the past few weeks, several vehicle owners were suggested to issue or validate their pollution certificates from the neighbouring states, such as Uttar Pradesh or Haryana as the pollution division departments in these states operate manually. “If one is facing an issue to get the pollution certificate, the vehicle owners can always go to some nearby states-UP (Noida) or Haryana (Faridabad), as the procedure there is still offline or manual. In Delhi, our system is online now, so sometimes, we face some trouble with the registration of the car if the server gets down or is slow. So, it would be easier for the car owners to get the valid pollution certificate in other states,” a man sitting in the pollution centre of Hindustan Petroleum, Kalkaji, Delhi, told this correspondent.
If vehicle owners had problems travelling to other states, they were recommended to go to the Pollution Control Division in Kashmere Gate, Delhi. “It would be better if the car owners visit the office of Pollution Control Division near Kashmere Gate, Delhi and get their car number registered on the website. We receive all the instructions from there itself, so one can always visit their office and get their vehicle number registered if the owners have any problems getting the pollution certificate,” the man at the pollution centre of Bharat Petroleum, Delhi told this paper.
However, some vehicle owners from outside of Delhi were also suggested to get further information on issuing pollution certificates and details from the Delhi RTO office. “One needs to bring the car and we will check if the vehicle is registered on the official website of Delhi Transport departments. For further information, the owner of the vehicle can always check with the Delhi RTO office,” a man sitting at the pollution of Indian Oil, Lajpat Nagar, told this paper.
The new rule of ‘Pollution under Control (PUC)’ certificate to refill vehicle tanks is put in place to assure pollution management in the city, so vehicle owners just need to bring their PUC certificates to their petrol stations, and if the certificate comes out to be invalid, it must be renewed at the pump.
When The Sunday Guardian visited the main headquarter of the Transport Department in Delhi, the correspondent was informed that the site is streamlined now but for the past two to three weeks, there were some technical glitches. “Now, the site is streamlined, in the last two-three weeks, there was some glitch, so I had, also, heard that a lot of vehicle owners from different states had been facing trouble reissuing or issuing their pollution certificates. At present, one can go to any nearby PUC centres and they will add the details of the car on the website. The employees are all the NIC members and are well aware of the procedure,” said a person from the Delhi Transport Department, who wishes to be anonymous. As per the notification issued by the Transport department, last year, it states, “…all the petrol pumps in the NCT of Delhi, enforcement staff are hereby deployed to check the PUC certificates of the vehicle which are coming for fuelling the vehicle.”
To eliminate the risk of fake documents and long queues, the government is aiming to build up automated mechanisms to check the PUCs, such as RFID (used in FASTags). At present, the Delhi government has established 963 Pollution Checking Centers at Petrol Pumps and Workshops throughout the city. All these centres provide pollution-checking facilities and provide PUC certificates to vehicles that meet the required pollution standards. In October 2015, the “Paryavaran Mitra” programme made PUC certification real-time and connected it with the car registration database. Such a step has increased the credibility of PUC certifications and also assisted in the identification of polluting vehicles in the city.