Letting go or rescue: A death sentence for your old wheeled ‘friends’

Inevitably, there comes a time to part with an old friend, even if that ‘friend’ is your vehicle — a two-wheeler, three-wheeler or four-wheeler. The universal truth of ‘old making way for the new’ is now glaring at owners of vehicles that are more than 15 years old in Karnataka. This is in keeping with the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) direction to all the states that vehicles older than 15 years are unfit and should be scrapped to reduce air pollution. Mallikarjuna C, Additional Transport Commissioner (Enforcement South) in Karnataka, has said all government vehicles that have run for 15 years should be scrapped, while owners of private vehicles more than 15 years old will be given the option to get a fitness certificate for the vehicle, failing which the vehicle would be scrapped. So, if you want your old ‘friend’ to be with you longer, rush to the Regional Transport Office (RTO) and get that fitness certificate. That will grant you an extended relationship with your ‘friend’. The state government has already taken the first step towards scrapping old vehicles. The state will have its first government-certified vehicle scrapping centre, call it a “slaughterhouse”, at Devanahalli near Bengaluru, where your ‘friends’ will be crushed using environment-friendly methods. It is expected to be operational by December-end. The state government has finalised three private companies to set up and run the Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facilities (RVSFs), the ‘slaughterhouses’. Approval for it is expected to be given by this month. Two other facilities will be set up at Koratagere in Tumkur district and Koppal. There are about 60 RVSFs across the country, but none in Karnataka so far. The one in Devanahalli will be the first of the three in the state which will crush your 15-plus-year-old ‘friends’ without a fitness certificate. The government-owned ones are doomed to their fate — they will be crushed, with or without a fitness certificate. As per the transport department data, there are up to 15 lakh vehicles — government- and privately owned ones — that are fit to be scrapped. The figure is expected to go up to 66 lakh over the next five years. In plans such as these — although a well-meaning one in terms of aiming at cleaning up the air — someone always gains. In this case, it will be the touts at the RTOs, who are expecting to hit gold, feasting off an unprecedented rush of private vehicle owners desperate to ‘save’ their ‘friends’ by getting a fitness certificate. The other ones to benefit from this are the mechanics, the allies of the vehicle owners in their mission to save their ‘friends’. The road ahead is pretty predictable. Private vehicle owners will choose one of two routes: To rush to their trusted mechanics and plead with them to get their vehicles ready to obtain a fitness certificate; or, bid farewell to their ‘friends’, allow their vehicles to be crushed and receive what is called a Certificate of Destruction (COD) — it will mention the value of the vehicle at its point of ‘execution’, which could be used as a discount while buying yourselves a younger ‘friend’. The ones completely untouched by the vehicle scrapping policy are the privileged ones who are in the habit of selling and buying vehicles every few years, well before the ‘friend’ reaches the old age of 15. The scrapping has not begun yet. It is bound to take time because the ‘slaughterhouses’ have to be up, equipped with their deadly equipment that will eliminate your ‘friends’. Heart goes out to those vehicle owners who are emotionally attached to their ‘friends’. For them, it would be like waiting with bated breaths to ensure they get the fitness certificate to rescue their ‘friends’ from the ‘slaughterhouses’. Well, they are most likely to be intercepted by the salivating touts at the RTOs….unless they are scrapped first!