A bureaucratic tangle between Delhi Traffic Police and the Transport Department has been hampering the work of clearing debris on the eastern and western banks of river Yamuna despite the order from the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Around 37,000 cubic meters of debris in Eastern bank and 53,000 cubic meters of debris in the western bank of the river Yamuna is dumped. Heaps of construction material waste dumped along the river bank are not being removed as the Delhi Traffic Police is unable to give permission for the goods vehicles registered outside the Capital to ply.
A senior official of the traffic police said in 2009, the Transport Department issued a notification which bars plying of heavy goods carriages in the city which are registered outside Delhi and not conforming to Bharat-III stage of emission standard. “Therefore, no goods vehicles registered outside New Delhi can lift, unload goods in Delhi. If the permission is to be given, then an amendment would be required to life the complete ban of such vehicles,” he said, adding that recently the Delhi Traffic Police has written to Transport Department to bring change in the policy.
A senior official of the Ministry of Environment and Forest has also asked Delhi Traffic Police to exempt Uttar Pradesh and Haryana
registered vehicles in the city; so that they could transport the debris and solid waste along the river Yamuna to the processing unit at Burari and other specified dumping yards.
Referring to the letter, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar has also sent a communiqué to Delhi lt Governor Tejendra Khanna requesting enunciation a clear cut policy regarding ban of goods vehicles registered outside Delhi. “The notifiations are coming in the way of the implementation of the said order (NGT order). It is requested that a clear cut policy may be enunciated, not only in view of the directions of the National Green Tribaunl, but also to allow government work service and maintenance of various projects in Delhi for which permissions have been pending or have been denied,” the letter said.
In his letter, Kumar also mentioned that a number of government agencies including Supreme Court of India, Parliament of India, Embassies, civic agencies like PWD, CPWD, MCDs, NDMC and DMRC have also been applying from time to time for grant of permission to ply in the restricted areas having vehicles registered outside New Delhi.
On June 21, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla wrote a letter to the Transport Department (a copy of which is with The Pioneer) asking it to frame a clear cut policy to exempt other state registered heavy goods vehicles to be used in government work, service and maintenance of various projects in Delhi and especially in view of the removal of debris on the banks as per directions of the Tribunal.
When The Pioneer spoke to Shukla, he admitted that a
letter had been sent to the Transport Department to frame a policy immediately as it was hampering them to give permission to vehicles plying outside Delhi, but he refused to divulge further details.