Linking Vehicle Insurance with Pollution Certificate
iasparliament
August 11, 2017
Why in news?
The Supreme Court has mandated that only vehicles with ‘Pollution Under Control' (PUC) Certificate will be eligible for insurance.
What is the rationale?
The court’s order follows the recommendations of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA)
This recommendation was made by the EPCA in its report on assessment of the Pollution under Control programme in Delhi and the National Capital Region, which was submitted to the Supreme Court earlier this year.
The EPCA investigation has shown very poor level of compliance with the PUC programme.
Currently, even in pollution conscious Delhi, only 23% of vehicles are found to be PUC compliant.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is a party to the case and has responded positively to the EPCA report.
This is seen as a stringent step to curb air pollution and increase compliance.
What are the other recommendations?
The need for better regulatory oversight in issuing PUC certificates was stressed.
This is because, there are serious quality concerns in the way PUC tests are conducted and equipment maintained in numerous PUC centres.
Malpractice is evident and noticeable as centres are numerous, small and decentralised making it very difficult to inspect and monitor all of them.
The court has asked the State governments to audit PUC centres and set up a strong oversight system to ensure credible tests and emission results.
The court has also directed the linking of PUC centres with an online network and data centre to prevent manual tampering.
