Vehicles Failing Emission Test Also Got Pollution Under Control Certificates In Delhi With AAP Govt: CAG
CAG noted that there were discrepancies in emission testing of petrol, CNG, and LPG vehicles as they were declared 'pass' despite failing the test
In the last few years, when the national capital reported some of the worst episodes of air pollution levels, Delhi was issuing Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCCs) to vehicles failing emission tests, a new report issued on Tuesday shows.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report—Performance Audit of Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi for the year ended March 31, 2021—stated that 22.14 lakh diesel vehicles were checked at Pollution Checking Centres (PCCs) between 10 August 2015 and 31 August 2020 — when the Aam Aadmi Party was controlling the government. The report shows that test values were not recorded in respect of 24 per cent of vehicles—5.38 lakh.
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“However, these were declared ‘Pass’ and issued a PUCC. This raised doubts about the genuineness of PUCCs for these vehicles. In 4,007 cases, even though the test values were beyond the permissible range, these diesel vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ and issued PUCCs," the report said.
CAG said the transport department needs to fix bugs in the system to make the PUC system credible.
Every motor vehicle operating on petrol, CNG, or LPG, manufactured as per BS-IV norms, is required to comply with idling and high idling applicable emission standards for carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), and lambda notified by the union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), the report said.
“As per the PUC database for 10 August 2015 to 31 August 2020, 65.36 lakh Petrol/CNG/LPG vehicles were issued PUCCs. However, 1.08 lakh vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ and issued PUCC despite emitting CO/HC beyond the permissible limits," it said.
Lambda is a dimensionless value representative of the burning efficiency of an engine in terms of the air/fuel ratio in the exhaust gases. The lambda test was integrated with the online PUCC portal on August 18, 2017.
From August 18, 2017, to August 31, 2020, 10.61 lakh BS-IV petrol-driven vehicles were put to lambda test, and 9.89 lakh vehicles were declared “pass" and issued PUCCs, the report added.
“A total of 5,661 vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ despite the fact that the Lambda values were beyond the permissible range of 0.97 to 1.03. Lambda value was not found recorded in 52,555 cases (five per cent) out of the total cases. Thus, Audit could not confirm whether these vehicles really passed the Lambda test," the report highlighted.
CAG noted that there were discrepancies in the emission testing of petrol, CNG, and LPG vehicles as they were declared “pass" despite failing the test.
“Moreover, test values were not recorded in several cases due to which correctness of PUCCs cannot be ensured," it stated.
The report also noted that between November 2018 and October 2020, the department of transport (DoT) had issued 53,655 challans for vehicles emitting visible smoke.
“Audit observed that out of the issued challans, 52,711 challans (more than 90 per cent) were issued to vehicles carrying a valid PUCC. This casts doubt over the reliability and veracity of PUC centres who had issued these PUCCs. DoT however had not set up any mechanism of internal inspection of such PCCs," the report said.
In its reply to CAG, the transport department said in September 2021 that visible smoke from vehicles mainly depends on factors like adulterated fuel, malfunctioning of injectors, poor maintenance of the vehicle, overloading of the vehicles, and improper setting of the engine of a vehicle.
“Further, the PUCC is issued to a vehicle with a validity from three months to one year in which period a commercial vehicle covers around 20,000-80,000 kms, therefore, the possibilities of emitting visible smoke in a vehicle due to the above reasons is quite high," the report quoted DoT, which also added that the efficacy of pollution equipment depends on its calibration and that the software does not permit the issuance of PUCC from any uncalibrated equipment; thus, the inspection of the testing equipment at PCC is not required.
CAG said the reply questions the reliability of the PUCC mechanism, which is the responsibility of DoT and, therefore, is not acceptable.
“Despite an advisory (August 2017) of MoRTH, the Department did not implement calibration of PUC equipment by third-party agencies, critical to get authentic results," it added.
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