In a recent development that has come across, the Indian government has asked state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra to form special teams that will carry out investigation and would further take action against the violations made by General Motors India. The team will probe the incidents related to the recall of 1.14 lakh units of Tavera and shall take necessary steps as per the law.
In a statement, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said “It was decided that the said two State Governments may be requested to constitute special investigation teams, inter alia consisting of technical and legal experts, to conduct investigation and initiate action as soon as possible, preferably within three months."
In the statement it was further mentioned that the two state governments are requested to ensure that probe is carried out under the supervision of chief secretaries or by the Home Secretary of the respective states. They will make sure that the whole investigation process is carried out expeditiously and effectively, without crippling the production process of General Motors. The decision of forming separate investigation teams to overlook the matter of General Motors was taken in a meeting that was headed by MoRTH Secretary, Vijay Chhiber. The meeting was called after the secretary had seen three-member panel report on the issue of violations made by Indian wing of General Motors.
As stated, both the state governments had been “requested to take up appropriate investigation into the matter, on the basis of the statement of facts by GM India, as the acts of infringement of the regulations were stated to have taken place, at the manufacturing units in these two states." The committee of Transport Ministry suggested that the investigation should be carried out by an appropriate agency as it did not came to a specific conclusion, owing to the lack of evidence.
Also, the ministry decided to protect the interest and rights of car consumers in India, and thus a meeting should be organised for the Standing Committee on Environment (SCOE). It will consider the recommendations made by the committee with regards to the amendments made for improving the standards in COP testing. It said “the SCOE recommendations should be submitted immediately thereafter for further action.” Furthermore, the statement told that a new team will be formed that will be supervised by Additional Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries, Ambuj Sharma to monitor the recall procedure of the affected vehicles, ensuring that the fault is rectified at the earliest.
It must be noted that, earlier Nitin Gokarn, Chief Executive Officer, National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) was asked to head a three member panel that looked in the safety issues regarding the Tavera model of General Motors. They were also given the power to decide upon the penalty amount that the company was to pay if found guilty. During July 2013, General Motors India recalled 1.14 lakh units of Chevrolet Tavera that was manufactured between 2005 and 2013 in order to rectify the problems persisting with emission and specification issues. After that, the Transport Ministry formed a panel to investigate the flouting of emission norms and other safety related procedures by General Motors India.
