Bengaluru: An online petition campaign has been launched calling cabs aggregators such as Ola and Uber to ensure that vehicles getting registered with them have undergone pollution tests.
The campaign launched by Jhatkaa.org has already generated more than 2,000 signatures.
A Jhatkaa spokesperson told Deccan Chronicle, "Last year the Supreme Court had made it mandatory for the vehicles to have Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate to be able to renew insurance. Yet it is not mandatory for cars getting registered with Ola and Uber to have PUC certificates.”
The spokesperson pointed out that as the app driven cabs are being used extensively in the city, they should be subjected to the same rule as other vehicles. This will help in keeping the city’s air pollution under check.
"Ola and Uber are popular not only in Bengaluru, but in every metropolitan city in the country. But these aggregators have still not made PUC certificate a mandatory requirement for vehicles getting registered under them. Earlier Taxi for Sure had made PUC certificate mandatory, but after it was taken over by Ola, it is no longer the case. So we have started a petition,” the spokesperson said.
Jhatkaa.org has sent letters to the country heads of both Uber and Ola to bring this issue to their notice, apart from tagging them on social media. “We are yet to get a response from them and thought that media pressure would be essential to bring this issue to limelight," the spokesperson added.
Dubious pollution check centres
In many states there have been crackdowns on centres issuing pollution under check certificates without inspecting the vehicles. There is a growing demand that Karnataka state transport department too should carry out checks to curb such malpractices.
