Tag: transport department

Patna’s new home delivery: pollution under control certificates

Source: downtoearth.org.in

Bihar’s transport department launched a mobile pollution testing van facility to deliver pollution under control (PUC) certificates on vehicle owners’ doorsteps.

After implementation of the new Motors Vehicles Act, penalty for violating PUC norms increased to Rs 10,000 and so did the footfall of certificate seekers at pollution testing centres. This prompted the department to launch the facility.

A trial of the mobile van facility was conducted at the Patna secretariat on September 18 and it will soon be completely functional with the launch of a toll-free number, said transport officials.

“We are in the process of launching a toll-free number. Once it starts functioning, the mobile van service will be operational too,” said Sanjay Agarwal, secretary, state transport department.

“Vehicle owners will then be able to call the van to their homes by dialling the toll-free number and get the PUC certificate issued on the spot within few minutes,” he added.

They will initially press 10 such vans into service in Patna and later expand it to other districts, said Agarwal.

Patna is the seventh-most polluted city in the world, according to a recent Greenpeace report. The annual level of particulate matter 2.5 in 2018 was 119.7 micrograms per cubic metre in Patna, added the 2018 World Air Quality Report, jointly prepared by IQAir AirVisual and Greenpeace.

The fear of the fine and inadequate number of pollution testing centres made vehicle owners opt for public transport.

“My PUC certificate has expired, so I have stopped rising my bike to work. I am commuting through public transport so I don’t have to pay a heavy penalty. Also, there are no pollution testing centres in and around my locality so I have failed to get the certificate renewed,” said Dilip Kumar Singh, who works in a private company in Patna.

There are around 500 such centres in Bihar, of which 98 are in Patna district, according to a report by the state transport department.

The department has also asked all petrol pumps and service centres of automobile companies to set up pollution testing centres soon. “Opening of these centres will not only curb air pollution but also provide job opportunities to youths,” said the transport secretary.

There are 2,550 outlets of various oil marketing companies in the state.

There’s also a plan to set up 150 more centres in the state in the next six months.

With new fines, axe on licence in Ranchi

Source: telegraphindia.com

If steep fines for traffic violations are not enough, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019 also permits the suspension of a first offender’s licence for a period of three months, if the transport department deems fit.

Ranchi traffic police department on Thursday shot off a letter to the Ranchi district transport department, recommending the driving licences of as many as 203 people be suspended for three months. These traffic offenders were all caught and fined for violating various traffic rules, including not wearing helmets, under the amended motor vehicles Act from the evening of September 3, when it was enforced in the capital.

However, now the district transport department has to take a final call on the suspension of the licences. Offenders can approach the department, pleading against their licence suspension by promising they would not violate traffic rules in future.

Asked about this double jeopardy, Ranchi traffic superintendent of police Ajit Peter Dungdung explained: “The amended Act, in section 19, has the suspension provision. Now, fine and suspension of licence can go hand in hand. The person whose licence has been suspended will have to also undergo a driver’s refresher training course.”

The traffic SP added that they had prepared a list of people caught violating traffic laws from the evening of September 3 to Wednesday night.

Once the suspension of the driving licence is decided, the transport department will inform the person (driver). If the licence is issued from other district (outside Ranchi in this case) or state, the district transport department will write to the transport officer concerned to suspend the licence.

If the vehicle owner is found driving during the tenure of suspension, he will have to pay Rs 10,000 as fine. If the vehicle concerned is found out on the road during the tenure, being driven by someone else, that person has to pay up Rs 5,000.

Offenders are being fined for traffic rule violations such as jumping traffic light, driving without helmets, lacking insurance papers or pollution certificate, riding a two-wheeler with two or more pillion-riders, overloading, driving in defiance of one-way or without wearing a seat belt, among others.

Biker ire at cop

A plainclothes policeman who attempted to fine a biker without a helmet on Thursday morning near Mausi Bari roundabout under the Sector II outpost of Jagannathpur police station was subjected to the youth’s anger. In-charge of Sector II outpost Kaushal Kishore Thakur, in regular clothes, chased the bike and stopped the rider. The youth did not realise Thakur was a policeman and asked why he was being accosted. When Thakur said he was a cop, the youth said why a cop without uniform or helmet could harass a commuter without a helmet. As Thakur and the youth lost their cool, the driver of a passing car stopped and apparently asked why he (Thakur) was being so rude. An enraged Thakur allegedly took the man’s ignition key. A crowd assembled on the spot. Finally, Hatia DSP Prabhat Ranjan Barwar had to intervene. The DSP said he started a probe on why the issue took such a serious turn.

Double penalty

Transport commissioner Praveen Kumar Toppo on Thursday wrote to all traffic SPs DTOs and DSPs asking them to sensitise officials to follow traffic rules as in case they violate any rule, penalty would be double for them.