Dehradun Assistant Regional Transport Officer (ARTO) Arvind Pandey said as per the directions of district magistrate and senior transport officials, the department is presently focusing on raising awareness among the citizens about the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019.
However, after the successful completion of Panchayat elections the department will be taking strict actions against those not following the rules and challans under relevant sections and provisions will be issued. The Panchayat election counting is slated to be held on October 21.
He added, “As you know, our awareness campaign is ongoing. We are appealing the public to also participate actively in this campaign. We have asked the citizens to send us photos or videos of people or vehicles breaking traffic rules, whether it is rash driving or riding or vehicles spreading pollution. Against the vehicles which are spreading pollution in the air through their exhaust, we are issuing challans. Since our awareness campaign was initiated we have issued about 10 challans to various vehicles including city buses and Vikrams. On the basis of the photos that public has sent us few loaders and taxis were also seen discharging pollution through their exhausts.”
When asked whether the effects of recession was seen during the Navratri earlier this month he said, “Since October 1, total 3,000 vehicles have been registered in Dehradun. Anything certain can only be said after the month end, as then only we can compare it with past year’s records of the same month.”
He also said following the imposition of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act 2019, citizens had been rushing to get their paperwork done.
Earlier there was a problem with limited number of Pollution Under Control (PUC) centres, but now their numbers have increased. Similarly, he said that since September 1, about 14,900 learning licenses have been issued.