LAHORE: The authorities dealing with smoke-emitting vehicles, the main cause of smog, are finding it hard to control air pollution caused by traffic due to issues of jurisdiction, fake fitness certificates, old obsolete motor vehicle laws and staff shortage.

As a result, those dealing with vehicles have failed to stop the running of smoke-emitting/unfit vehicles in Lahore — the country’s second-largest metropolitan — that continues to be among the top three most polluted cities across the world for the last many days.

The authorities see control of unfit vehicles a huge challenge, saying that dealing with the people in the transport sector is the most difficult task that needs reforms to bring about change and environmental improvement.

On the other hand, people continue to suffer from the smog that is affecting the health of the public at large as many people are admitted to hospitals for treatment.

“For the last many days, I have been observing unfit vehicles on city roads including tractor-trolleys laden with fodder and other goods. By emitting dangerous smoke, such vehicles are contributing to toxic smog, leaving hazardous effects on the health of people, animals etc,” a resident of Awan Town, Multan Road, says while speaking to Dawn.

No check on smoke-emitting vehicles; RTA secretary working with only two staff members

“Since operation of unfit vehicles on Lahore roads is a routine matter even during the present worst smog situation, the authorities concerned seem least interested in taking action,” he deplores, requesting the Punjab government to take action.

According to a resident of a housing society situated along the Canal Road, while coming back to his home from office, he sees various vehicles (pick-up trucks, rickshaws etc) and motorcycles emitting smoke on the way.

“But I never find someone checking and penalising them to control mobility of unfit vehicles on the Canal Road — Lahore’s major and most busy artery.” He urges the authorities to station on Canal Road and other major roads for some days to control entry of unfit vehicles.

“I would suggest better a complete ban on running of all kind of unfit vehicles in Lahore,” he says.

Similar reports are received from some residents of other areas, including Mughalpura, Lal Pul, Dharmpura, Cantt, Shahdara, Ravi Road, Shimla Pahari, Johar Town, Muslim Town, Ferozepur Road, Jail Road and Wahdat Road.

Talking to Dawn, Road Transportation Authority (RTA) Secretary Rana Moshin rejects the impression that the authorities are not working as all concerned, including transport and traffic officers, are doing their best to take action against unfit vehicles.

“I have seen that the traffic police imposed fines amounting to Rs25m on smoke-emitting motorcycles, cars etc. Likewise, we impounded a number of heavy vehicles for being unfit to be on the road. Moreover, the Punjab Transport Company (PTC) people are also doing their best to control the running of smoke-emitting vehicles coming into their domain,” he explains.

According to him, two and three-wheeler transport doesn’t fall in jurisdiction of the transport department in Lahore as they are being dealt with by the traffic police and the PTC whereas the rest of transport falls under domain of the RTA.

Mr Mohsin raised the issue of staff shortage, saying as he has only two-member staff to deal with affairs of the unfit vehicles, one wonders how the enforcement would improve.

“When I have two officials alone to deal with such affairs, how can I improve our enforcement system?” he adds.

He says the major issue is the entry of a huge number of heavy transport (trucks, trailers) in Lahore from other provinces — Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Most of such heavy vehicles have the registration of their respective provincial cities. Moreover, they all have fitness certificates, some of them are either fake or issued wrongly, says Mohsin.

“When we check such smoke-emitting vehicles, the drivers show fitness certificates. In such a situation, what action can we take as we have no power to cancel such certificates or impound vehicles.”

To another question, Mohsin says if he and others start impounding unfit vehicles in bulk, including the heavy transport (trucks, trailers etc), there would be no open places, including those at the police stations, left empty in Lahore.

He says that in various cases, he himself investigated and found drivers obtaining money from the vehicle owners to get the vehicles repaired or their parts replaced but they got the parts on rent for a certain time. And after passing the time, they again got the old parts fixed in the vehicles.

To another question, Mohsin says the motor vehicles laws have no provision about the mobility of maximum five or 10-year-old vehicles in Pakistan.

“That is why we still have vehicles of 1950 and 1960 model running on roads with emission of excessive smoke,” he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the city district administration says that the teams led by the RTA secretary carried out nearly 1,500 inspections from Nov 1 to 13 and detected 359 violations.

“As many as 116 vehicles were impounded whereas 114 challans were made, imposing fines amounting to Rs1.75m,” he claims.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2024