Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

142 vehicles detained for using LPG as fuel

V. S. Palaniappan

Penalty can be six months rigorous imprisonment or Rs. 1,000 fine or both

CURBING MISUSE: Transport Department staff tag keys of vehicles running on illegal LPG. Photo: K. Ananthan

COIMBATORE: The Transport Department on Friday night cracked down on the use of unauthorised gas conversion kits in vehicles and LPG as auto-fuel and detained 142 vehicles.

The Deputy Transport Commissioner, Coimbatore Circle (comprising Coimbatore, Erode and The Nilgiris Districts), K. Yogarajan, has ordered the drive.

During the drive as many as 1,251 vehicles were checked in all the three districts of which 281 were transport vehicles and 970 own-use cars. Of the 142 cars detained 119 were non-transport vehicles and 14 call taxis.

The drive also led to the detention of nine own-use cars being run as taxis besides using LPG as auto-fuel.

Of the 14 call taxis detained the transport authorities have initiated procedures to cancel the fitness certificates of 13 taxis. In addition, steps were being taken to suspend the driving licence and the registration certificate of the vehicle, Mr. Yogarajan added. Steps were being taken to initiate prosecution proceedings against the vehicle owners under section 52 (alteration of fuel mode in a vehicle without the permission and endorsement of the registering authority in the registration certificate) and section 184 (for endangering the lives of fellow motorists by resorting unauthorised use of LPG as auto-fuel) of the Motor Vehicles Act.

For unauthorised use of LPG as auto-fuel, the law prescribes penalty as follows: for the first time offence it will be six months rigorous imprisonment or Rs. 1,000 fine or both and in the event of the offence being detected for more than once the vehicle owner/driver was liable to be sentenced for two years' rigorous imprisonment or Rs. 2,000 fine or both.

"The transport department was cracking down only on the use of unauthorised fuel conversion kits, but there are a number of vehicle-owners using authorised LPG conversion kits with the endorsement of the transport department in a place like Coimbatore where there are no LPG dispensing stations," the secretary of the Coimbatore Consumer Cause, K. Kathirmathiyon, has said. Hence, until the LPG dispensing stations were established in Coimbatore the Transport Department should not to give endorsement in RC books even for authorised gas conversion kits, he said.

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