“NGT’s order can be seen as a major step to strengthen the measures taken in Delhi to curb pollution. Diesel buses were banned long ago and actions on entry of diesel trucks have been taken.
The current order is directed towards diesel vehicles. On one hand, Supreme Court is already hearing a case on new diesel cars where it has asked for environment compensation charge. On the other, the NGT order is looking at the on road diesel vehicles. In this perspective, the green court has clearly indicated that the old diesel-driven vehicles, which are more polluting, need to be controlled and gotten rid of,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). She further added: “The larger message of the order is that the city requires stringent action to reduce diesel emission from all sources and that even cars will have to be part of such action. This order was much needed as diesel emission is extremely toxic.”
However, the taxi operators in the city are of the view that the order of NGT will not bring any substantial relief from air pollution as majority of commercial diesel vehicles operating in the city are registered in neighboring states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. According to an estimate, there are only around 30,000 commercial vehicles registered with Transport Department of Delhi government.
“A huge number of diesel cars operating in the city are registered outside Delhi. The recent order regarding deregistration of diesel vehicles over 10 years will have no bearing on such vehicles. A coordinated effort from neighboring states is also necessary to curb air pollution in the city,” said Rajender Soni, General Secretary of Delhi State Taxi Union.
“It was already very hard to get fitness certificate for vehicles which were more than 10-year-old so there were not many registered vehicles in Delhi. But, there are owners of old vehicles who would be effected by this order,” said R S Khuran, president of Delhi Transport Association.
NGT during the last hearing had sought clarification from the Delhi government on its stand on cancelling registration of 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles in the National Capital Region and had censured for its failure to implement court’s order banning old vehicles.
In its response, the counsel appearing for the Delhi government had said the government does not have the power to cancel registration of vehicles and vehicles impounded last year had to be released on orders of magistrate courts.