Saddled with enforcing the NGT order banning diesel vehicles older than 10 years, Delhi Traffic Police and Enforcement Wing of the Transport Department have a lot on their plate with over three lakh such vehicles currently plying on the roads. Their task will be made even more complicated as there is no clarity on how to dispose of the impounded vehicles in the absence of a scrapping policy.
Meanwhile, with the Transport Department considering giving one last opportunity to the owners of old diesel vehicles to get the No Objection Certificate and sell them outside the Capital, officials feel that with the existing manpower, it will be an uphill task for the department to issue NOCs to around three lakh vehicles. As the NGT order is expected to trigger panic among old diesel car owners, thousands of them will queue up at transport authority offices to get NOCs.
“While all the 2.8 lakh diesel vehicles older than ten years can be de-registered by making changes in the central database and issuing a blanket order, each vehicle will have to be issued a separate NOC for it to be able to be sold in another State. Also, there is no provision to issue an open-ended NOC for the vehicle to be sold anywhere as it can be issued only for a specific authority of another State where the vehicle is going to be sold,” said an official of the Transport Department.
This means that only after finding a buyer for the old vehicle, one can apply for the NOC.
When asked about how much time the Government will give to the owners of old diesel vehicles to obtain the NOC and sell it to other States, a senior Government official responded that it can be decided only after the court order is properly analysed.
“When the court had earlier banned 15-year-old vehicles, we used to impound the violating vehicles and issue a court challan which had a minimum fine of Rs 2,000. Afterwards, most of the vehicles were returned to their owners after paying the fine and filing an undertaking in court that the vehicle will not be plied on Delhi roads and will be sold outside. But now if the registration of the vehicles will be cancelled, it is unlikely that the vehicle will be returned to the owner. In such a scenario, it needs to be figured out what will be done with the vehicle,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sandeep Goel.
Imposing the earlier order banning 15-year-old vehicles, Delhi Traffic Police had impounded around 2,600 vehicles out of which, around 2,300 were returned to their owners while around 300 are still in the impound pits.
As per the NGT’s order on Monday, diesel vehicles older than 10 years will not only be banned, but also de-registered by the respective Motor licensing Officers. Being de-registered, these vehicles can neither ply, nor be sold in other States.
“If the Government gives a window of some weeks to owners to sell their vehicles outside the State, we hope most of them will no longer ply on Delhi roads. But if a significant number of such vehicles remain on roads after the window expires, we will impound them and the courts will decide what would happen to the vehicles after that. There is limited space to park impounded vehicles and if they get full, we need to work on the disposal mechanism of such vehicles and no such mechanism exists at the moment,” a traffic police official said.
The official added that the question is whether such vehicles will be returned to the owner, auctioned outside Delhi NCR or sold as scrap. “Will it be legally possible to sell them as scrap as the owner of the vehicle is someone elseIJ And if it is possible, who will get the proceeds of the saleIJ These are the questions that need to be figured out,” the official said.