National Green Tribunal gives 2-week breather but acts tough

NEW DELHI: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has put on hold its order of April 7 banning more than 10-year-old diesel vehicles in the capital. The bench, headed by chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, on Monday considered Delhi government’s contention that the order posed practical difficulties and may impact essential services, such as vegetable and garbage carrying trucks.
“There shall be no impounding of vehicles for two weeks.We make it clear that we are varying our order only for two weeks,” said the bench. The order on diesel vehicles comes within months of a similar direction to ban petrol vehicles more than 15 years old. The bench said the stay had been ordered “in the interest of the larger public and to ensure public utility services (were not affected) and keeping in mind submissions made by NCT, Delhi.” Truckers associations had threatened to stop transporting goods to Delhi from Tuesday against the NGT order.
But the bench enhanced the scope of its previous order by directing the government departments to submit “reasoned and scientifically supported” views on a number of other interventions, such as capping the number of vehicles registered in Delhi, providing concessions to those who agree to scrap or transfer their polluting vehicles and providing public transport on priority at all important places, such as commercial areas, markets and industrial areas.
Experts said the April 7 and Monday’s orders are pushing the government in the right direction. “Earlier, the Supreme Court had also ordered Delhi government to implement fiscal incentives for replacement of old autos and taxis. For instance, they can be given a tax exemption on the purchase of new vehicles or an interest subsidy on loans. Vehicle owners should also understand that new vehicles mean better mileage and less pollution. The government should now come up with incentives for scrappage or replacement of old diesel vehicles,” said Vivek Chattopadhyay of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s clean air programme.

The bench was displeased with the government because despite asking for its response several times on policies for reducing air pollution in Delhi, nothing was submitted by the state or Centre. “We may notice that during the hearings in the past six months, we had asked for suggestions and comments on all these issues without much result. We do hope that all the government and concerned stakeholders will respond on these issues without default and delay within the prescribed time. We make it clear that we are varying our directions only to this limited extent. However, all vehicles shall be subject to the prescribed pollution check and other environmental norms,” the order stated.
The bench also asked Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to come up with suggestions jointly.