Bhubaneswar, Sep 6 (IANS): The Odisha government here on Friday delayed implementation of the Pollution Under Control (PUC) certification, under the amended Motor Vehicle Act 2019, for one month.

The decision had been taken to give more time to people to get their vehicles checked and collect the PUC certificate, said Transport Secretary G. Srinivasan and urged the police personnel not to harass or penalise vehicle owners for this violation.

The PUC certificate is mandatory under the amended Motor Vehicles Act, which has the provision of Rs 10,000 fine for violation of air and noise pollution norms.

Serpentine queues could be spotted at pollution checking centres in the city as the number of vehicles are turning up at these centres for the past couple of days.

Meanwhile, the Odisha Police have decided to arrest people involved in drunken driving in the state. The police said breath analyzer would be used 14 toll gates in the state to check drunken driving.

"If alcohol content exceeds 30 mg per 100 ml of blood or the drug consumed makes him incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle, the person shall be arrested," said a police order.

Within 2 hours of arrest, the person will be subjected to medical test by a registered medical practitioner for the purpose of collection of blood specimen.