The crisis is due to a delay in the procurement and distribution of security holograms, a mandatory requirement meant to prevent forgery
BENGALURU
State’s vehicle emission monitoring system has all but collapsed, with over 400 emission checking centres shut across the state, after the Transport department failed to supply hologram stickers for nearly a month.
Most of the closed centres are attached to petrol bunks, crippling routine emission testing and leaving thousands of motorists stranded without valid certificates, and vulnerable to penalties.
Industry representatives say it is a forced closure of Pollution Under Control (PUC) centres. We had to keep shutters down for the past eight days, said BR Ravindranath, former President of Karnataka State Petroleum Dealers’ Association. Of the 2600 PUC centres in the state, a majority are now non-functional. Without hologram stickers, certificates cannot be issued.
The crisis is due to a delay in the procurement and distribution of security holograms, a mandatory requirement meant to prevent forgery. The delay has triggered a chain reaction, centres cannot operate, vehicle owners cannot comply with the law, and enforcement agencies are policing a rule the government itself has made impossible to follow.
The disruption comes at a time when the state is pushing for cleaner mobility and stricter emission norms. The impasse exposes administrative bottlenecks and poor coordination within the Transport department. One officer said on condition of anonymity,
We have written to the government but they have not cleared it for about two months, citing one reason or other. Now they have sent it to the Finance department and no one knows how long it will take. For about a month we distributed 5 lakh hologram stickers as an emergency measure but now we cannot continue that also.
There were complaints that some unscrupulous persons were using fake holograms and continuing to run the emission centres. With no clear timeline for resolution, pressure is mounting on the government to immediately restore supplies, a consumer demanded.