The Punjab government has blacklisted 5706 Bharat Stage (BS-IV) vehicles fraudulently registered after April 1, 2020 in violation of the guidelines of the Supreme Court of India.

The state government has also taken action against vehicles, whose taxes were due and documents were incomplete. All services related to these vehicles have been blocked, Punjab Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said on Monday.

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As per the guidelines of the Supreme Court, a complete ban was imposed on the registration of high-polluting BS-IV vehicles after 31 March 2020. But this type of vehicles had been registered fraudulently, of which the Transport Department has identified 5706 vehicles so far, the Minister said.

Bhullar said that an investigation revealed that the vehicle owners, company dealers and clerks, assistants, accountants of the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) offices and some senior officials manipulated the engine and chassis number, vehicle manufacturing details and the registration of these vehicles was done besides evading taxes.

He said that apart from this, many vehicle dealers continued their dealerships without getting themselves registered in the office of the state transport commissioner at that time and they have been found to be involved in fraud with the government by registering such vehicles on a large scale in their own names.

Even many such dealers have got themselves registered fraudulently on the portal NIC (National Informatics Center). He said that the registration documents of many vehicles were found to be incomplete during investigation.

“The department has uploaded the list of fraudulently registered BS-IV and other vehicles on the website of the department,” said the Transport Minister, adding that so far 5706 vehicles have been identified and the investigation is on for the identification of other vehicles.

Bhullar said that erring employees and persons involved will not be spared at any cost. He directed Secretary, Transport, and State Transport Commissioner, to initiate the process of collecting due taxes from the accused and take legal action against them under the Indian Penal Code and other relevant rules.