The State government’s hands are tied about the complaints of vehicles failing the smoke test being carried out at the pollution under control (PUC) testing centres across the State, said Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar here on Monday. Since the software dealing with PUC tests in the VAHAN portal, the national register for e-services offered by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), is handled by the Union government, the State cannot do anything with regard to the complaints.
The Motor Vehicle department (MVD) had earlier instructed the officials to look into the issue after a spurt in complaints regarding vehicles repeatedly failing the smoke tests at these centres. However, the majority of the complaints were found to be baseless as per the new requirements for emission standards fixed for various categories of vehicles, including Bharat Stage VI vehicles. In the past, the smoke inspection system in many centres was not accurate.
Of late, there has been a sharp rise in complaints regarding vehicles failing pollution tests. The vehicle owners have also been complaining that the vehicles that fail the PUC tests at some centres will get passed if the same vehicles are subjected to PUC tests at some selected centres. However, the MVD made it clear that the fitness of the vehicles has to be maintained to get the PUC test cleared. The vehicles that fail the smoke test will be re-tested after fixing the technical issues, said the minister. According to Central Motor Vehicles Rules, every vehicle is required to have a valid PUC certificate after the expiry of a one-year period from the date of its registration.
