Vehicles of Punjab MLA's san pollution certificates

[karira]

Vehicles of Punjab MLA's san pollution certificates

NAWANSHEHAR: The elected repersentatives of people who sit in Punjab Vidhan Sabha to draft rules for citizens, themselves violate the laws as far as obtaining pollution certificates for vehicles allotted to them is concerned.

According to the Nawanshahr-based organisation, Human Empowerment League of Punjab (HELP), the answer is perhaps a big "no". None of the 185 vehicles of Punjab Vidhan Sabha had pollution certificates as on August 20 this year.

Under the RTI Act, the HELP had sought information regarding insurance and pollution certificates of these vehicles. These certificates should have been valid on August 7, 2007, the date on which HELP had sought this information from the State Transport Department. Interestingly, according to HELP activists Gurvir Singh, Deepak Bali and Parvinder Singh Kittna their endeavour to seek these certificates forced the state transport authorities not only to ask the drivers of these vehicles to procure and submit the pollution certificates but also resulted in asking the accounts department to withheld the salaries of the drivers who fail to comply with the orders.

As per the observations of the HELP activists, the senior officials of the government also appear to be least bothered about these concerns. "Not only this, even after a notice by the State Information Commission, Punjab, the state Transport Department was able to provide copies of pollution certificates of only 58 vehicles. There is no information about the pollution status of the remaining 127 vehicles," maintains Kittna who reveals that 57 of these 58 certificates were issued after August 20, 2007. The pollution certificate of the vehicle PB-12E-1045 had expired on January 19 this year. Regarding insurance of government vehicles, as per Kittna, the transport department maintains that the same has been waived off under Section 146 of Motors Vehicles Act, 1988.

PunjabNewsline.com - Vehicles of Punjab MLA's san pollution certificates