As the stir by diesel cab drivers brought the city traffic to a halt for the second straight day, the Delhi Government approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday seeking two days time to suggest a plan of action for phased removal of non-CNG cabs in the Capital.
The move comes even as BJP MPs urged the Centre to intervene in the matter before the Supreme Court alleging the Arvind Kejriwal Government was “insensitive” to the crisis facing the city.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, senior advocate Chandra Uday Singh informed the Bench that the city faced a crisis which required immediate remedy as all petrol and diesel cabs had been taken off in a single stroke. Not wanting to be seen as opposing the court’s direction, Singh said that the Delhi Government was all for curbing pollution which is evident through the various initiatives taken by it. However, it requested the court to consider if the ban on cabs could be implemented in a phased manner.
The Bench said, “We do not intend to create a human problem but such steps do cause inconvenience.” It asked the Delhi administration for an alternate roadmap. The Delhi Government took time to seek instruction and by 4 pm, when the court was about to rise for the day, lawyer Chirag Shroff sought two days time to present the plan for phased rolling out of CNG cabs.
The traffic was brought to a standstill across Capital in the morning as non-CNG cabdrivers and owners blocked key arterial roads connecting the city to neighbouring Noida and Gurgaon. The chaos due to multiple protests was multiplied due to repair work at some parts of the city, which led to a number of diversions.
Thousands of Delhiites going to their offices were stranded on various key arterial roads, including Delhi-Noida Direct Flyway, NH8 and Mehrauli-Badarpur road during the morning rush hours. The sweltering heat added to the woes of the commuters as the temperature remained high on Tuesday as well.
Holding the Delhi Government responsible for the chaos, general secretary of Delhi Pradesh Taxi Union Rajendra Soni said that the Government has failed the transport community of the Delhi. “From auto drivers and taxi operators to tempo drivers, grameen sewa and truck drivers, everyone is forced to come out on the streets to protest. All we can do is protest and ask the Government to find a solution for us. But the way it is going, I seriously feel the whole transport system of the city will come to a halt and there may be a joint chakka jam by the whole transport community crippling the city,” he said.
later in the day, Transport Minister Gopal Rai also met the representatives of taxi drivers and assured them to present their side to the Supreme Court during the hearing on Thursday.
On the confusion over All India Permit, Rai said, “There has been no direction by the Government that cabs with All India Permit won’t be allowed to ply. The Court hasn’t given any such clear or written direction either.”
Although many bottlenecks, including the one near Radisson Blu Plaza on National Highway 8, that connects Delhi and Gurgaon, were cleared by the Traffic Police by noon, their ripple effects were visible in the form of long tailbacks.
Cab drivers blocked traffic at DND Flyway for about 45 minutes.
“Traffic was affected for 45 minutes from 9.45 am to 10.30 am on Tuesday. It was affected for 20 minutes on Monday as well,” DND Flyway spokesperson Anwar Abbasi said.
District Magistrate NP Singh also issued directions to all IT, other companies and transporters to get diesel cabs converted to CNG. Over 20,000 cabs are running for companies in Noida, ferrying their employees.
Traffic volume on the already busy roads such as Vikas Marg, especially areas in and around ITO, went up due to ongoing repair work on Bhairon Marg and desilting of a canal near Karkari More.
Meanwhile, the issue reverberated in Parliament as BJP members in the lok Sabha used the opportunity to target the “insensitive” AAP Government. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJP MP from South Delhi constituency Ramesh Bidhuri said that the “diktat” by the Supreme Court has come as a bolt from the blue for the taxi operators, some of whom had bought the vehicles only a month ago. He said the affected taxi operators, numbering over 27,000 were forced to come out on streets and the Delhi Government was “insensitive” to their problems.
He took a potshot at Delhi Chief Minister as he wondered how despite being an IIT graduate, Kejriwal failed to take note of an IIT study that had said vehicular pollution comes fifth among factors causing Delhi’s pollution.
He pointed to the pollution caused by thermal power units, brick kilns and waste burning, considered far worse than vehicular pollution. He was supported by several members of the ruling party with thumping of desks.
With taxi drivers and owners blocking arterial roads leading to Delhi causing huge traffic jams on city’s outskirts, an emergency meeting chaired by Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday had decided to approach the apex court and seek modification of the Court’s order of Saturday asking all non-CNG cabs to stop plying from May 1.
The Supreme Court had on last Saturday refused to give more time to cab operators to convert to CNG and put a ban on diesel cabs in the city from May 1, a decision that affected over 27,000 diesel-run vehicles, many of them linked with app-based cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola.