The Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has proposed to the Bengal government that vehicles should not be inspected for pollution unless their owners submit Aadhaar-linked mobile numbers to the testing centre.

In a letter to the state’s principal secretary — a copy has been sent to all states and Union territories — the ministry said that “necessary modifications may be made in the PUCC (pollution under control certificate) process, initially for six months in pilot mode, ensuring the service is not provided to a vehicle owner unless an Aadhaar-authenticated mobile number is available”.

The Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate is mandatory for all motor vehicles according to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.

The certificate ensures that vehicles meet the laid-down emission standards, aimed at reducing air pollution.

The letter says that the ministry is “concerned that due to the lack of updated communication records, such as the mobile numbers of the vehicle owners in the database, important vehicle-related alerts, messages and notices are not being delivered to the current owners”.

It urges the state government to “issue necessary instructions to all concerned for making the drive to update communication records in the Vahan database a success”.

Vahan is an online portal for vehicles registered in India.

Managed by the MoRTH, the portal stores all the data about a vehicle’s registration, ownership, details of taxes and insurance paid and permits.

The Centre’s letter emphasises that “vigorous perusal with the PUCC centres to be undertaken and sensitisation must be carried out to ensure overall efficiency and effectiveness...”.

Senior state government officials said the ministry was keen to update the old database of vehicle owners with Aadhaar and mobile numbers to prevent the practice among a section of changing the mobile number and applying for a new driving licence to evade paying penalty dues.

“The Union ministry wants to put in place a system of tracking those who frequently violate traffic rules and pose a threat to other commuters,” a senior officer in the home department said.

The letter states that a two-way authentication process using Vahan will be introduced in the pollution testing centres across the state.

“In case an invalid or incorrect mobile number is found, a text message will be sent to the vehicle owner providing a link to update their mobile number,” the letter states.

Transport department officials said the move would help rein in a section of touts who continue to get pollution tests done on behalf of their clients using their telephone numbers and choose not to respond to periodic alerts.

“The letter has just reached us. We will meet and discuss the technicalities before finalising how the pilot project can be launched,” a state transport department senior official said.

“We will also seek an opinion from the police who send out messages about traffic violations on the mobile phones of car owners,” said the official.