NEW DELHI: Vehicle owners have coughed up around Rs 330 crore as penalty in past five years for not having a valid pollution under control (PUC) certificates, reports Dipak Dash. Rajasthan collected the highest amount at Rs 102 crore, followed by Delhi (Rs 78 crore), Kerala (Rs 54 crore) and Uttar Pradesh (Rs 17 crore), according to govt data.In a written response in Lok Sabha, road transport ministry said between 2021 and 2025, penalties were imposed on owners of around 5.74 lakh private and commercial vehicles for lack of PUC.The ministry also informed the House that 319 govt vehicles were also found without valid PUCs since 2018 and Rs 2.5 lakh fines were collected for this violation. More than half of these fines came from govt vehicles flouting PUC norm in Delhi, followed by Rajasthan where Rs 40,900 fine was collected from violating vehicles.The ministry, meanwhile, has started rolling out an e-detection system to automatically check vehicle documents & compliance with regulations using high-resolution cameras and data from sources like FASTags at toll plazas. E-challans are generated if a vehicle is found to be non-compliant.
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