NGT slams government over 15-year-old vehicles

Diesel taxi owners and drivers shout slogans and block roads during a series of protests in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: Biplab Banerjee)

The National Green Tribunal on Monday took the Delhi government to task for its failure to implement its order banning vehicles more than 15 years old from plying on the roads in the national capital when it was “active” on odd-e3.

“You have done whatever you wanted to, this odd-even formula. When you are so active in odd-even, why don’t you take other orders in the same spirit...

“Why your police doesn’t do anything with regard to 15-year-old vehicles Why don’t you challan them Why has the police not taken any action in furtherance to orders passed by the tribunal ” a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the Delhi government.

The NGT also slammed the government over incidents of waste-burning and dust pollution in the national capital, saying “We cannot allow you to generate methane and carbon all the time. You were so active in odd-even, why don’t you do the same thing for dust pollution and burning of municipal solid waste Why don’t you control waste-burning and violations of norms by builders.

Heaps of garbage is being burnt at various waste plants in the city. It is like a burning mountain. We cannot allow you to generate methane and carbon all the time,” the bench said.

The green bench also directed CPCB to expeditiously file the data of ambient air quality in Delhi recorded during the recently-concluded second phase of the odd-even scheme. Earlier, the tribunal had asked the Delhi government and other authorities to create awareness about air pollution caused by vehicular emissions and burning of municipal solid waste and issue advertisements on the lines of the odd-even scheme.