Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJD and Congress in Odisha criticised the BJP government’s “No PUC, No Fuel” policy, alleging that it was leading to the harassment of common people.
Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik of the BJD said the gross mismanagement in the enforcement of the policy caused immense hardships and inconvenience to the common people.
He said the sudden announcement in December that the rule would be enforced from January 1 led to chaos with massive queues at testing centres across the state.
“The BJP government failed to prepare adequately, with no expansion of testing infrastructure, no advance planning, and no awareness campaigns on the required scale,” he said in a social media post.
Faced with public outrage, the government was forced to take “multiple U-turns”, he said, adding that the enforcement of the rules was first deferred to February 1, then to March 31, and a blanket relaxation was announced Thursday till April 1, including suspension of e-detection at toll gates.
“The BJP government’s handling of the PUC Certificate enforcement has been marked by gross mismanagement and repeated policy flip-flops that have caused immense hardships and inconvenience to the common people of Odisha,” he alleged.
“These repeated reversals expose the utter incompetence and lack of foresight in the Transport Department. The people of Odisha deserve better governance and policies that are implemented without causing unnecessary suffering. While controlling vehicular pollution is important, it cannot come at the cost of harassing citizens,” he added.
Patnaik, the former CM, sought immediate scaling up of PUC testing facilities, simplifying of the process, and said that no undue penalties should be imposed on people during this transition period.
Addressing a press conference, state Congress president Bhakta Charan Das alleged that the state government was harassing unemployed youths and the poor while the real pollution-causing industries were going scot free.
“If the goal is to make a pollution-free Odisha, the focus must shift to highly polluting industries and not just private vehicles. Penalising citizens and allowing industries to pollute freely exposes flawed priorities,” he said.
“This is weak governance. Why should common people suffer for policy failures? Good governance means regulation with responsibility, not harassment,” he added.
Besides suspending pollution-related fines till April 1, the Transport Department Thursday said steps are being taken to rationalise the existing Rs 10,000 penalty prescribed under the Motor Vehicles Act.
At present, only about 21 per cent of vehicles in the state possess a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificate, an official said.
PTI