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Punjab blacklists 5,700 vehicles for flouting SC’s guidelines
The Punjab government has also taken action against the vehicles whose taxes were due and documents were incomplete
Punjab government on Monday blacklisted 5,706 BS-IV vehicles registered fraudulently in violation of guidelines of the Supreme Court of India.
The state government has also taken action against the vehicles whose taxes were due and documents were incomplete. All services related to these vehicles have been blocked.
Transport minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said as per the guidelines of the apex court, a complete ban was imposed on the registration of high-polluting BS-IV vehicles after March 31, 2020, but this type of vehicles were registered fraudulently. Punjab transport department has identified more than 5,700 vehicles so far, he said, adding that their investigation revealed that vehicle owners, company dealers and clerks, assistants, accountants of RTA and SDM offices and some senior officials tampered with engine and chassis numbers, vehicle manufacturing details and registration of these vehicles besides evading taxes.
Besides this, many vehicle dealers continued their dealerships without getting themselves registered with the state transport commissioner at that time and have been found to be involved in fraud by registering such vehicles in their own names, the minister said. Many such dealers even got themselves registered fraudulently on the portal National Informatics Centre, he said, adding that registration documents of many vehicles were found to be incomplete during investigation.
“The department has uploaded the list of fraudulently registered BS-IV and other vehicles on the website of the department,” the minister said and added that action would initiated against the erring employees and persons involved in the fraud.
