ACTION SOON AGAINST ILL-EQUIPPED CENTRES; RE-TENDERING ON CARDS

Dr. Kamal Soi, International Road Safety Expert, who is also Member- National Road Safety Council, today said the Haryana Transport Minister has assured to initiate action against ill-equipped centres issuing fitness certificates to vehicles plying in the state. Further a tender will be finalised immediately on the basis of the PPP within the next 2 months, it has been assured. 

In a press conference here at Chandigarh Press Club, he once again brought to light issues in implementing the statutory rule with respect to the issuance of fitness certificates of vehicles. These shortcomings have created impediments in effectively implementing Section 56 of Motor Vehicle Act, 1998. 

“During my meeting with Moolchand Sharma, Haryana Transport Minister yesterday, I highlighted that the state is suffering a monthly revenue loss of Rs.6 Crore per month. So since July 2021 the state exchequer has lost a revenue in excess of Rs. 60 Crore. With the government coming up with these on PPP it will generate revenue and also save extremely precious human lives.”, said Soi.

He added, he had addressed a press conference on October 24th, last year wherein he had said, that as per an order of June 23, 2021, issued by Haryana Transport Commissioner has instructed all DTO cum–RTA’s across Haryana State to authorise Dealers of OEMs to operate as “Authorized Testing Stations” for conducting Fitness Testing of Vehicles. Each Authorized Testing Station shall be specific to the make of vehicles which the dealer sells as authorised dealer. 

“During my meeting with Moolchand Sharma, Haryana Transport Minister yesterday, I highlighted that the state is suffering a monthly revenue loss of Rs.6 Crore per month. So since July 2021 the state exchequer has lost a revenue in excess of Rs. 60 Crore. With the government coming up with these on PPP it will generate revenue and also save extremely precious human lives.”, said Soi.

“Before my October press Conference, I had made two representations dated 30th October,2021 and 28th December, 2021 to the Honourable Transport Minister, Haryana and the Transport Commissioner Haryana regarding the wrong practices with respect to the issuance of fitness certificates to vehicles”, he said. 

The Transport Department had issued 72 Authority letters to various dealers of OEM’s to conduct fitness testing of Vehicles and issue Fitness Certificates to these Vehicles. These dealers did not have required testing equipment as laid out in the CMVR and have still started issuing Fitness Certificates to the Vehicles which gross violation of laws laid by Government of India. 

Soi said, “I had also met with Additional Secretary (Transport), MoRTH and apprised him about the rampant malpractices and irregularities in implementing the statutory rule with respect to the issuance of fitness certificates in the State of Haryana to the Vehicles.

MoRTH had then written to the State Transport department and when I met Honorable Transport Minister Haryana he informed me that he is planning to make a working group to resolve this matter and invited me to join the same.

Based on this the Honourable Minster called me and other stakeholders for a meeting yesterday. He was extremely positive and accepted my suggestions & agreed that he will immediately start taking action on the closure of these centres awarded to the private garages and OEM's. This will be discussed in the high powered meeting of secretaries being held tomorrow and thereafter the tender process shall start. In case it cannot be finalised tomorrow he will hold a special meeting for this in the next week to ten days to settle the tender and take it forward immediately and close the process in maximum 9 months.” 

“As an International road safety expert my major concern is that plying of unfit motor vehicles on the roads is significantly one of the major causes of road accidents in the recent times.

I request the Honourable Minister to kindly intervene and order that only the right and just system prevails to issue fitness certificates to the vehicles and I further request the Minister to order cancellations authorising Vehicle OEM’s dealers to issue Fitness Certificate to the vehicles, adding, fitness certificates are even being distributed to 40 years old junked vehicles and vehicles are being given certificates without calling them at the fitness centers”, Soi concluded. 

HARYANA AT NO. 8 AMONG THE TOP 10 CITIES IN ROAD ACCIDENTS  

As per the statistics, due to the unfit vehicles plying on the roads of Haryana, accidents have been increasing on a daily basis and owing to the same Haryana have figured at Rank No. 8 in the Ranking of Top 10 cities in 2020 in terms of Road accidents. Further, as per the Report of NCRB for Road Accidents in India – 2020 examination of the top 10 States in terms of accidents shows that they account for around 22 % of the total accidents at the India level in 2020 where the State of Haryana is 8th in rank.

It has been submitted that as per the data of death caused due to road accidents in the State of Haryana, road accidents were 9506. There has been a substantial increase from previous years owing to the failure in law enforcement. As per the Report around 4631 died in these accidents in 2020. Haryana is in the top 15 States where accidents and death rates have increased. Owing to invalid Vehicle Fitness certificates, the absence of Pollution Certificates the unfortunate victims of road accidents are facing a great amount of difficulty in settlement of insurance claims and getting due compensation.