Anti-pollution measure on hold

  • 30/05/2008

  • Statesman (Kolkata)

The state environment department has kept in abeyance its notification to make production of vehicle pollution control certificate mandatory for getting diesel following a strike threat by petrol pump owners. The transport minister, Mr Subhas Chakraborty intervened and advised the department not to hurry and implement the notification from 5 June, World Environment Day as planned earlier. The state environment minister, Mr Sailen Sarkar said: "The transport minister called up to say that the petroleum dealers' association have raised some practical problems and requested us to put the order on abeyance for the time being.' Mr Tushar Sen of the Petroleum Dealers' Association pointed out that the onus of checking the Pollution Under Control certificate of the vehicle owners has been placed on the petrol pump operators. "There might be law and order problems. The order should be implemented after setting up infrastructure,' he said. Incidentally, two months back on 26 March the state environment department had convened a meeting with the transport department, police and other stake holders like taxi, bus and truck associations in a bid to effectively implement the notification. Scientists of the state pollution control board had demonstrated how air quality of the city have deteriorated compared to other metro cities. It was also decided that the PUC certificate would be stuck on the windscreen of every vehicle and petrol pumps would supply diesel only if the vehicle sports the sticker. The environment department was to draw up the guidelines for implementing the order. Violation of the order would invite fine of Rs 5 lakh and imprisonment up to 5 years. However, it is clear that in the past two months the other stakeholders had been sitting on the proposal. The environment and transport department will once again hold discussion on the matter after 16 June, after the environment secretary returns to the city.