Reacting to a series of reports in Metro on the fudging of figures by pollution under control (PUC) centres, the government has decided on a roadmap for yet another clean-up drive.

As a first step, the public vehicles department (PVD) has set up a monitoring team, comprising in-house experts and officials from the pollution control board (PCB).

Sources in the department disclosed that the team would kick off its mission against the malpractice on Thursday by randomly visiting several PUC centres, including the ones identified by Metro.

?A detailed inquiry will be conducted to get to the root of the problem. We will initiate immediate action against those found guilty,? said a senior PVD official.

There are over 115 PUC centres in the state, out of which 70 are in Calcutta.

Admitting to problems in the existing system ? 28 PUC centres in the city were not suitable to run, the monitoring committee in 2004 had mentioned ? the official stressed that the probe would not be a ?one-off? affair, like so many of its predecessors.

The department is in the process of developing proper checks and balances to keep PUC centres under the scanner.

While clean-air campaigners have welcomed the latest initiative of the government, that has till now either turned a blind eye or just added to the confusion, they are quick to point out how laxity has allowed the loopholes to grow wider.

?Malpractice in PUC centres is nothing new. Even a high court-appointed committee mentioned in its report in 2000 that there was a cloud of suspicion over the performance and integrity of the testing centres,? said environmental activist Subhas Dutta.

In its report, the committee had referred to a study that the PCB had conducted under the court?s instruction in 1996 in connection with a case filed by Forum for Calcutta about the functioning of auto emission centres.

The report had revealed how 20 centres of the 60 that the PCB team had visited across the state did not even exist. It was also found that some centres did not have functional testing apparatus, while some were sharing space with medicine shops and grocery stores.

?The court had directed the transport department to take action on the basis of the findings of the PCB report. But nothing happened,? recounted a senior PCB official.

A similar study by the Calcutta Environment Management Strategy and Action Plan ? funded by the UK government ? covering 35 centres in the city and the surrounding areas corroborated the PCB findings.

Fact-finding committees have consistently recommended computer-aided testing centres. Now, those are in place, but so is the malpractice.