VADODARA, May 17: The District Administration's drive against polluting vehicles in the city has begun to fizzle out within four days of its launch. And if official sources are to be believed, the drive has failed to have even a little impact as a large number of government and private vehicles still plying on roads sans a check.State Civil Supplies Minister Jaspal Singh had last week instructed the District Collectorate to launch a concerted joint drive by the Regional Transport Office (RTO), forensic lab and the District Supply Office (DSO) to check the vehicular pollution.
It began on a rather sombre note with the joint team of the official machineries checking and challaning 23 auto-rickshaws and recovering fines worth about Rs 2,000 from the guilty drivers on the first day.
Official sources informed that instead of combing the city, the team camped only on one spot Sayajigunj and emphasised on educating the drivers about ill-effects of pollution instead of fining them heavily as announced earlier by District Collector Mukim.
However, the drive struck in neutral gear for the next two days as the RTO and forensic lab officials remained busy in other official assignments including routine meeting with senior officials from Gandhinagar. The district collectorate had a meeting of senior officials from about 10 neighbouring districts who discussed arrangements to mitigate damages during the monsoon.
The anti-pollution drive on Saturday yielded Rs 11,000 fine from 45 rickshaws emitting smoke beyond norms. Senior officials added that though it has been decided to zero in on the vehicles illegally plying between the nearby villages from Monday, the drive was not picking up for want of consolidated efforts from the different departments.
Mukim, however, does not admit that the drive is flagging and insists that it will bear fruit and the grip over the offender vehicles tighten in the long run. ``It is not a one-day affair. We want a continuing check and we are doing it without hurry for it's going to be long-term programme, though, administration has its other assignments too because of which the drive might have sounded lagging behind. The drive will pick up soon,'' he says.
