RTO launches `collection drive' to check pollution

RTO launches `collection drive' to check pollution
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Transport department's appetite for money seems insatiable. First, it slapped a 15 percent cess on road taxes. Then came a rise in motor vehicle taxes. Now, the department has issued a circular to auto dealers in the City to pay up for the anti-pollution drive they have taken up.

The department has fixed two slabs: Rs.10,000 from two-wheeler dealers and Rs.20,000 from four wheeler-dealers. Auto dealers are shocked. Not because the department is asking for money officially - they have been used to coughing up money unofficially for the survival of their business. But because the department is demanding money for an anti-pollution drive they plan to hold ``in November.''

One dealer said he received the circular in the last week of November, and the RTO officials are after them for money. ``We are already in December and we don't know where our donation will go if we comply with their demand now.''

Another wondered if there were any such programmes by the department last month - he does not recollect having noticed any campaign in November, other than routine road shows.

The circular from Afzal Ahmed Khan, RTO, Bangalore East, minces no words. It reads: ``As per the instructions of the Commissioner for Transport, Bangalore, various programmes involving the vehicle dealers, driving schools, emission testing centres, schools and colleges, industrial undertakings, business concerns, software firms etc., are being conducted in order to bring awareness about the harmful effects of the air pollution especially the pollution caused by the smoke emitted by the motor vehicles.'' The circular asks the dealers to hand over the money in the new Registration Section of the RTO offices.

``The RTOs, we are sure, have already collected a lot. They are threatening those of us who have not yet paid, to either pay up or face consequences. The sharp rise in taxes has hit our business and margins alike. The transport department is only rubbing salt on our wounds,'' a car dealer said.

Transport Commissioner Omprakash, however, disowned the donation business, and clarified that the department has not asked any RTO to collect money for the campaign. The RTOs must be doing this on their own, and he has no knowledge about it, he said.