A long way to go for pollution control in Prakasam

Periodic examination of vehicles belonging to APSRTC, government departments and individuals will help scrap the vehicles that fail to meet the standards

Laws mandates that commercial vehicles older than 15 years and passenger vehicles of more than 20 years need to be mandatorily scrapped if they do not pass the fitness and emission tests. The government departments need to do away with their vehicles after 15 years.

However, old and unfit vehicles continue to ply on the roads in Prakasam district, putting the lives of the people in danger.

The Andhra Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC), which has a large fleet of buses, continues to run outdated vehicles. Even as the laws mandate that buses which have plied a distance of 12.5 lakh kilometers should be withdrawn, they are still plying for various reasons, say the sources in the APSRTC employees’ union.

Many buses, especially the ‘Palle Velugu’ services, continue to ply beyond their prescribed life expectancy. According to an estimate, more than 1,000 buses need to be replaced with new ones in Prakasam district.

Despite the periodic inspections conducted by the Road Transport Authority (RTA), private bus operators, in their attempt to reduce the operational cost, managing with old vehicles by repairing them.

“There is a need for a uniform scrappage policy to curb pollution as different States have different set of rules ”G. Narasimha RaoPoura Samajam president

“There is a long way to go for the switchover to non-polluting electric vehicles. Even the APSRTC lacks the necessary support from the government for the purpose,” says R. Ayyappa, a leader of CITU-led staff and workers’ union.