NGT order leaves Delhi government in a spot

A day after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed various stakeholders, including the Delhi Government, to crack the whip on diesel-run vehicles plying in the Capital, a concrete enforcement plan is yet to take shape mainly due to paucity of adequate resources.

This, despite a high-level meeting chaired by Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai with representatives of various Departments during the day with a similar meeting scheduled for Thursday.

“We assessed the situation today and we have called a meeting for the same purpose tomorrow; the situation s being assessed to ascertain how best to enforce the order which we are, however, yet to receive at the moment,” Gopal Rai, Delhi Transport minister, told

The Hindu.

Meanwhile, the traffic police attempted to make a beginning in terms of enforcement but with lukewarm results. Muktesh Chander, special CP (traffic) said 96 diesel-run vehicles were impounded by the traffic police in compliance with the NGT order till four pm on Wednesday.

“A city-wide drive will be carried out throughout Wednesday night till early Thursday against diesel-run vehicles more than ten years old found plying in Delhi,” Mr. Chander said.

According to a Government source, efforts to ascertain the number of diesel-run vehicles in the Capital were still underway with senior Transport officials having expressed their reservations about enforcing the NGT order citing manpower concerns.

Current estimates

The Enforcement Wing of the Transport Department has a manpower of 200-odd personnel; the NGT’s latest decision would make each one of them responsible for “checking” an estimated 3,000 of the total six lakh diesel vehicles that are officially registered in the Capital. Close to 90 percent of these are privately-owned vehicles, as per Government records.

Similarly, the Department is concerned about the increase in workload that the NGT’s latest decision has put on it given the fact that it was yet to “fully implement” a previous decision directing it to affect a crackdown on vehicles older than 15 years plying in the Capital. There are over 83 lakh vehicles registered in Delhi.

The issue of manpower and paucity of resources was also cited by the traffic police with a source stating that the traffic police was only equipped to prosecute vehicles on the basis of their age; weight being carried and other technical issues, a source said, were not within their domain to check or take action against.

The traffic police also does not have adequate infrastructure in terms of cranes and operational routes required to impound vehicles.

A concrete enforcement plan on reining in diesel-run vehicles more than ten years old is yet to take shape mainly due to paucity of adequate resources