For putting Delhi’s lungs on the road to recovery, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unveiled a long-term plan to ensure that cheap-but-more-polluting diesel no longer remains the desired fuel of either the rich or the commoner.
While ordering a temporary three-month ban (till March 31, 2016) on registration of diesel-run SUVs and cars above 2,000 cc in Delhi-NCR, the court observed that this may just be the beginning. In the next stage, the court proposed to tax all diesel cars with a hefty Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) payable at the time of registration.
After pronouncing the landmark decision to save Delhi from alarming levels of pollution, the Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi said, “Next time we will deal with lower variant diesel cars. There may be an ECC payable by them at time of registration.”
Disclosing the logic of targeting SUVs and luxury sedans, the Bench said, “It is noteworthy that diesel vehicles of
2,000 cc and above and SUVs are generally used by more affluent sections…a ban on registration of such vehicles will not therefore affect the common man or the average citizen in the city of Delhi.”
It further held that its order will override the recent order passed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which had put on hold registration of any diesel car till January 6.
The next category of diesel vehicles to be eased out of Delhi by the apex court is taxi and cab services such as Ola and Uber. It said, “We direct all taxis, including those operating under aggregators like Ola and Uber in the NCT of Delhi, plying under city permits, shall move to CNG, not later than March 1, 2016.”
The third category of diesel vehicles included trucks, commercial carriers, and transport vehicles. Any heavy or light commercial carrier registered on or before 2005 will not be qualified for entry into the Capital. The Bench said, “The State Governments and UTs concerned shall ensure that vehicles bearing registration numbers of the year 2005 or earlier do not enter Delhi.”
This rule will apply also to trucks bringing goods bound for Delhi that were permitted entry on payment of ECC of Rs 700 for light commercial vehicles and Rs 1,300 for trucks and heavy goods carriers. The court doubled the ECC to Rs 1,400 and Rs 2,600 under the above heads. However, this hike will not apply to Delhi-bound empty or unladen commercial carriers.
The court clarified that its earlier order of October 9 enforcing ECC was intended to ban entry of all commercial vehicles not supplying goods in Delhi. To its anguish, the court saw that vehicles still entered Delhi on payment of ECC. The Bench said, “No vehicle which is not bound for Delhi will be allowed to enter from NH-8 (from Jaipur to Delhi) and NH-1 (connecting Delhi to Punjab, Haryana via Kundli border).” The concerned Governments shall prepare alternate routes for diverting incoming traffic in order to bypass Delhi.
While preventing the Delhi Government and local authorities from burning solid waste to prevent harm caused to environment, it set a deadline of April 1, 2016, for the Arvind Kejriwal Government to purchase vacuum cleaning vehicles for cleaning dust from roads and pavements. In addition, the Central Pollution Control Board and its Delhi counterpart were directed to ensure that construction sites put curtains and other devices to cut on dust pollution.
By the next date, January 5, the Court directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to record air samples and report change in air pollution levels, if any. As a passing reference, the Court directed the Centre to ensure that all police on traffic duty be given masks to perform duties in polluted conditions.