The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to transport department, Delhi government, and Delhi Pollution Control Committee after a plea alleged that most of the official vehicles of Delhi government are ‘overage’ and flouting pollution norms.
The plea was filed by BJP MLA Jitendra Mahajan, who is also the chairman of the State Development Committee, Shahdara. He claimed that the authorities responsible for enforcing the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) order are themselves violating the order. Mahajan told NGT that he filed this application based on his own experience concerning the non-compliance of pollution norms by his old official vehicle. “I asked the Delhi government to arrange the servicing of my official vehicle, which was provided to me four years ago. The government ignored my request and I later learnt that the vehicle has no Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificate. I came to know that there are many official vehicles that have no PUC or insurance certificates. However, ironically, the common man pays a fine of INR 10,000 for not having a PUC certificate,” said Mahajan.
In 2015, NGT ordered that diesel vehicles over 10 years old and petrol vehicles over 15 years old will not be allowed to ply in NCR. In 2018, the Supreme Court asked the transport departments in Delhi and neighbouring states to prohibit the plying of 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old petrol vehicles. Strict enforcement of this rule is also part of the Graded Response Action Plan’s stage I.
The tribunal noted that the counsel for the applicant referred to a list of 107 vehicles of Delhi government that have completed their life of 10-15 years but are still plying on the road. “The counsel has submitted that several such vehicles are plying on the road without the PUC or insurance certificates,” observed the bench, headed by Justice Prakash Shrivastava. The bench asked the respondents to file their responses and said the matter will be heard next on February 20.
