Amid ongoing debate on deteriorating air quality in the national capital, a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report titled ‘Performance Audit of Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi’ for the year ended March 31, 2021’, revealed that people of Delhi breathed toxic air for 1,195 days out of 2,137 days in the last five years, putting residents at risk of severe health ailments and vulnerabilities.
The report highlighted some glaring gaps like inaccuracies in data generated by air quality monitoring stations, lack of real-time information on pollutant sources, irregularities in the issuance of Pollution Under Control (PUC) certificates, unreliable air quality monitoring systems and poor enforcement of pollution control measures and shortage of public transport buses reasons behind the worsening pollution scenario in the national capital.
The report was tabled in the Delhi Assembly by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday, paving the way for discussion on the previous AAP government’s failed attempts to curb air pollution. The air quality in Delhi remained ‘Poor’ to ‘Severe’ for 1,195 out of 2,137 days (56 per cent) during May 2015 to March 2021. This Audit focused on vehicular pollution with a view to assess whether Delhi government has taken adequate steps to prevent and mitigate vehicular emission affecting air quality in Delhi.
Air pollution was one of the major election issues raised by the BJP in Assembly election, promising to clean air quality and targeting the previous Arvind Kejriwal government of ignoring the issue. Out of the 14 CAG reports on the performance of the previous AAP dispensation in Delhi, eight, including on excise and health, have been tabled in the Assembly so far by the BJP government, which assumed charge of Delhi after more than 26 years following a landslide victory in the Assembly polls held on February 5. The report also criticised the previous AAP government for failing to conduct any real-time studies to identify the exact sources of pollution, a crucial step in formulating targeted solutions.
Vehicular emissions have been a major source of pollution in the national capital. The CAG audit focused on vehicular pollution to assess whether the Delhi government took adequate measures to prevent and mitigate vehicular emissions affecting air quality.
In respect of 22.14 lakh diesel vehicles checked at Pollution Checking Centres (PCCs) during the period 10 August 2015 to 31 August 2020, test values were not recorded in respect of 24 per cent vehicles. In 4,007 cases, even though the test values were beyond the permissible range, these diesel vehicles were declared ‘Pass’ and issued PUCCs. As per the PUC database for 10 August 2015 to 31 August 2020, 65.36 lakh Petrol/CNG/LPG vehicles were issued PUCCs.
More than 1.08 lakh vehicles were issued pollution under control (PUC) certificates despite them emitting carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) beyond permissible limits, the reports said. In many cases, multiple vehicles were issued certificates at the same time, sometimes within a minute of each other, it said.
In 7,643 cases, more than one vehicle was shown to have been checked for emission limits at the same time at the same center. 76,865 cases were noticed in same test center wherein only one minute lapsed in checking of vehicle along with issuance of PUC certificate which may not be practically possible.
Between 2015 and 2020, nearly 4,000 diesel vehicles that exceeded pollution limits were still certified as compliant, allowing them to remain on the road despite their high emission levels, the report said. Out of the 47.51 lakh overage vehicles required to be deregistered from 2018-19 to 2020-21, the government deregistered only 2.98 lakh such vehicles, constituting a small fraction (6.27 per cent) of the end-of-life-vehicle (ELV), while a majority 93.73 per cent (44.53 lakh) of the ELVs had “active” registration status as of March 2021, the report said, indicating that these ELVs were still plying on Delhi roads.
None of the 347 impounded vehicles were scrapped by March 2021, and the capacity of impounding pits remains grossly inadequate with space for only 4,000 vehicles compared to over 41 lakh vehicles awaiting scrapping, it added. Inadequate enforcement is another major challenge, the report said.
The transport department’s enforcement branch does not have sufficient staff or vehicles equipped with pollution-checking devices, making it difficult to monitor violations effectively, it said. Besides the shortage of staff, the enforcement teams did not have vehicles mounted with PUC equipment to check visibly polluting vehicles, resulting in inadequate coverage of the entry points to Delhi, indicating a weak enforcement regime, as per the report. Audit observed that there was shortage of public transport buses with only 6,750 buses available against a re-assessed requirement of 9,000 buses. The public bus transport system also suffered from a significant number of DTC buses remaining off-road, short coverage of bus routes and not rationalising of bus routes.
In the absence of input data regarding location-wise vehicular load, the deployment of the few ill-equipped enforcement teams was also bound to be sub-optimal, it said Additionally, the development of ISBTs at the entry points is another issue.
The CAG report for the year ended March 31, 2018, also highlighted that the Supreme Court’s directions (1998) to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) for setting up two ISBTs at the southwest and north entry points to Delhi to prevent the entry of diesel-powered inter-state buses beyond the periphery of the Capital were not complied with. The Delhi government did not establish the two new ISBTs at Dwarka and Narela, despite more than 20 years passing since the Supreme Court’s directions. In the absence of ISBTs at the entry points, diesel-operated inter-state buses were forced to traverse the city to reach the existing ISBTs (at Sarai Kale Khan and Kashmiri Gate). The transport department said in November 2021 that proposals for the development of two new ISBTs were being worked out, and it has been decided that the Dwarka ISBT would be developed by the PWD.
Additionally, concerns have been raised over the management of funds meant for improving parking infrastructure. The report said that while money was collected through taxes for parking facilities, there was no official record as to how these funds were utilised. Poorly managed parking contributes to congestion and increased vehicle emissions, further worsening the city’s air quality, it said.
Despite years of government interventions and action plans, the report said Delhi’s pollution crisis was not just a result of external factors such as crop burning in the neighbouring states but is also fuelled by systemic failures in regulation and enforcement within the city itself. The findings showed that while authorities have introduced measures to control pollution, poor enforcement and lack of coordination among agencies prevented meaningful progress, as per the report.