Guest column: Issuing fitness certificate' needs rigorous process

Everyone is aware that the air quality is worsening  in the city due to vehicular and industrial pollution and the dust. But it’s upto the government  to wake up and fix the problem.

While it is believed that vehicles that are over 15- years- old must be banned from the roads, before any move is made on this front they must be scrutinised properly as some are completely fine.  Unfortunately, there are others that emit fumes beyond permissible limits, but still have authorised fitness certificates. This is a fault in the system that needs to be rectified at the earliest.

In the normal course, the fitness certificate should be issued only after intense checking of the vehicle, keeping in mind  road safety and pollution. In fact, the Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) should work with the pollution control board to check the emission levels of  old vehicles, their road worthiness and exhaust limits and  if they  fail to satisfy both their norms and those of the  board, they should be banned from the roads.

In a few countries,  vehicles are after a certain number of years, handed back to the government for the sake of  environment safety. Such rules could be introduced here too.

Also, the government could bring in transport alternatives to  reduce people’s dependency on these vehicles.

— Ashish Verma, associate professor, department of civil engineering, IISc, Bangalore

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