Ghaziabad: Ashok Yadav rode his maroon scooty to Shiva Petrol Pump, a few kilometres from his home in Madhopura, a little after 2.30pm, expecting a small queue. He has been at the fuel pump several times before for petrol and expected the refill to take less than five minutes. But this time, an attendant leaned over to check his vehicle registration, looked it up on an app and told him fuel could not be provided without a valid pollution under control certificate (PUCC).“I didn’t know this was the rule. No one informed me that private two-wheelers also needed a PUCC certificate,” he said, turning his scooty toward the pollution testing centre a few metres away, where he spent the next several minutes obtaining the certificate.For two hours on Tuesday, officials from the district’s supply department held an awareness and enforcement drive that would formally come into force from Oct 1 and make PUCC mandatory to buy fuel in the district.The drive, officials said, was a preview staged in public so that motorists might not be blindsided when the deadline actually arrives.However, not everyone needed the warning. Roshan Sharma pulled up expecting scrutiny. “I got it three months ago. I am particular about these things as it helps the environment, and you can see Ghaziabad is already polluted,” he said.By the time the exercise ended, 16 vehicle owners had been turned away. Twelve of them returned within the hour, certificates in hand. Four could not, undone by paperwork as their registration IDs were invalid in the system.District supply officer Amit Kumar Tiwari said Tuesday’s drive was one of many being staged at pumps across the district, with WhatsApp groups deployed to keep pump owners abreast of the coming change. “We are going to every fuelling station and educating petrol pump owners as well as vehicle owners,” he said, adding that a Rs 10,000 challan would be issued to violators in the future, though for now the district was choosing persuasion over punishment.Kishan Kumar Garg, who owns Shiva Petrol Pump, said the drive was not merely a policy to administer but a business risk to absorb, and possibly a confrontation to defuse. “It will affect our business, but as long as it is good for consumers, it is fine. We also fear that some law-and-order situation might arise if people get aggressive,” he said.Officials said the district administration had been asked to provide police patrolling near petrol pumps during the first 15 days of enforcement to manage any law-and-order issues.Some motorists voiced scepticism about whether the enforcement drive would be sustained. Mitrunjay Kumar said he had read about the requirement in the newspaper but questioned its staying power.“They keep coming up with these initiatives, but these become habits. You cannot force people. Those who are educated will get it, but it can create chaos too. What if someone is in an emergency? There should be some mechanism in place. Otherwise, it could become like the no-helmet, no-fuel drive, where people would borrow helmets from nearby passengers for a minute just to get fuel,” he said.Other motorists said they had been unaware of the rule but would comply once informed.During the drive, officials installed the Khad Suraksha application on pump operators’ phones, allowing vehicle registration numbers to be checked against PUCC records in real time. Vehicles without valid certificates were sent to the on-site PUCC centre before being allowed to return for fuel.PUCC centre operator Rahul Kumar said several vehicles had certificates that had lapsed months earlier, with some not renewed for more than a year. He said server issues could also delay the process. “Initially, people will find it difficult. Sometimes the server is slow and people have to wait for 10-20 minutes. If everything works properly, it can take around five minutes,” Kumar said.
