State likely to be dumping zone
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, July 20 2022: Numerous developed countries have vehicle scrap policy to keep tab on vehicular pollution and vehicles driven by petroleum products are given certain lifetime and scrapped under the policy.

Gujarat is the first state in the country to have a vehicle scrap policy while neighbouring Assam has taken up steps to implement such a policy and only awaiting decision of the state cabinet.

However, no such step is being initiated in Manipur thus raising suspicion if the state will turn into a dumping zone for unfit and old vehicles brought from outside.

Lifespan of a vehicle is 15 years under Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 and a vehicle more than 15 years old is unfit to drive on road under the Act.

However, there is certain restriction and a vehicle can be used for additional five years if fit and pays green tax based on compulsory fit test.

In this connection, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had announced that private vehicles older than 20 years will be de-registered from July 1, 2024 if the vehicle fails in automated fitness test or does not renew registration certificate.

He had also announced that de-registration of commercial vehicles older than 15 years will begin from April 1, 2023 .

In respect of Manipur, vehicles over 20 years old will not be allowed operation as per the Manipur Motor Vehicle Taxation (second amendment) Act, 2015 .

The Act also mentions that such vehicles will be considered as scrapped but there has been no step to scrap such vehicles till date.

It is learnt that more than 10 lakh out of 48 lakh registered vehicles in Assam are more than 15 years old and the neighbouring state will have an additional 8 lakh such outdated vehicles in the next five years.

It is also learnt that 12.5 percent of India's total unfit or more than 15 years old vehicles are in the north east states and Assam state alone has 8.3 percent of such vehicles.

It is not a difficult task to identify the number of vehicles older than 15 years in Manipur and data available with the state transport department can help in easily identifying such vehicles.

On account of lack of vehicle selling/purchasing policy coupled with poor financial conditions, many families in Manipur purchase cheap used vehicles brought from outside to meet their requirement.

If the neighbouring state (Assam) happens to implement vehicle scrap policy, it is quite certain that outdated vehicles from Assam will be sold to the state at cheaper price.

This will make Manipur a dumping site for unfit and outdated vehicles from outside if the state fails to have its own vehicle scrap policy soon.

Though small in size, it can be assumed that there are more than 4 lakh vehicles in Manipur as registered vehicles in the state reached 3,81,281 as of March 31, 2021.This figure does not include vehicles registered before 2001 and those registered between April, 2021 and March, 2022 .

Accordingly, more than 4 lakh vehicles are being driven in the state now and most of the vehicles are in Imphal West and Imphal East districts.

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