A vehicle is issued a fitness certificate after thorough examination at a registered automated fitness centre, but in Gujarat, these centres only need photoshopped images of vehicles to certify them as fit for the road!
Waking up to this reality, the state transport department has now issued show cause notices to all 16 automated vehicle testing facilities in Gujarat.
The Union government had made fitness checks compulsory for heavy goods and passenger vehicles from April this year. A fitness certificate establishes that the vehicle complies with the safety and emission standards set by the government.
Transport department sources said that many vehicles from Rajasthan had been issued fitness certificates here in the state. Analyses of CCTV footage and fast tag records at toll plazas found that many of these vehicles had never entered the state. In fact, some of them were in another state on days they were issued the certificates here. The physical condition of some of the vehicles was so bad that it was impossible for them to travel to Gujarat, but even they were issued fitness certificates.
Against the fixed charges of Rs 200 to Rs 600 for the tests depending on the size of the vehicle, the centres would charge anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 to issue fitness certificates to vehicles on the basis of their photographs.
Even long trailers, which could not have entered the centres due to lack of space, were issued the certificates.
The officials said the modus operandi was very simple. The automated testing centres would ask vehicle owners to send photographs of their heavy vehicles and the owners would send them photoshopped images to clear the test. When the permit and road tax data records were checked, it was found that these vehicles had not taken any temporary permit to enter Gujarat, nor had they paid the road tax, proving that they never entered the state.
Even basic parameters were not met by many of these vehicles. For example, in over 25% of the vehicles that were marked fit, there were no mandatory radium strips. Besides, the details of the tests conducted in the third week of October, were uploaded manually and that too only towards the end of December.
Sources said when the transport department sought records of these tests, the owners refused to share them.
