Bhubaneswar: Naveen Patnaik, Leader of Opposition and Biju Janata Dal president, slammed the BJP government for its handling of the Pollution Under Control (PUC) Certificate enforcement, calling it ‘gross mismanagement’ and ‘repeated policy flip-flops’.
Taking to his X handle, Patnaik stated that the sudden announcement of the ‘No PUC, No Fuel’ rule from January 1, 2026, led to chaos, with massive queues at testing centers across Odisha.
He criticized the government for failing to prepare adequately, citing lack of infrastructure expansion, planning, and awareness campaigns.
Patnaik stated that the Biju Janata Dal stands firmly with the people of Odisha in this difficult time. And the party has been vocal in its protests against the BJP government’s gross mismanagement of the PUC enforcement.
Patnaik urged the government to scale up PUC testing facilities, simplify the process, and ensure no undue penalties are imposed on people during this transition period.
Also, he emphasized that controlling vehicular pollution is important, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of harassing citizens.
“The BJP government’s handling of the Pollution Under Control (PUC) Certificate enforcement has been marked by gross mismanagement and repeated policy flip-flops that have caused immense hardships, and inconvenience to the common people of Odisha. What started as a sudden announcement of the “No PUC, No Fuel” rule from January 1, 2026,quickly descended into chaos with massive queues at testing centres across the state. The BJP Govt failed to prepare adequately, with no expansion of testing infrastructure, no advance planning, and no awareness campaigns on the required scale”, read his post.
He continued: “Faced with public outrage, the government was forced into multiple U-turns: first deferring enforcement to February 1, then to March 31,and most recently announcing a blanket relaxation with no fines until April 1,2026, including suspension of e-detection at toll gates. These repeated reversals expose the utter incompetence and lack of foresight in the Transport Department. The people of Odisha deserve better governance, policies that are implemented without causing unnecessary suffering. While controlling vehicular pollution is important, it cannot come at the cost of harassing citizens.”
“The Biju Janata Dal stands firmly with the people and has been vocal in our protests against this mismanagement. We demand immediate scale up the PUC testing facilities, simplify the process, and ensure no undue penalties are imposed on people during this transition period. I urge the BJP government to learn from these mistakes and prioritise the welfare of Odisha’s citizens over hasty decisions” he concluded.
