Cabs and private vehicles that are entering the national Capital are flouting the Supreme Court order which in August had ordered them to paste hologram-based coloured stickers on vehicles on the basis of fuel they use — CNG, petrol and diesel — in order to control air pollution from October 2.
In a reality check by The Pioneer, it was found that none of the vehicles — private or commercial like cabs, tempos and other four-wheelers — that entered the national Capital had the coloured stickers pasted on their windscreens.
Most of the vehicle owners, cab drivers and other motorists were not of the SC order and even those who had information appeared confused as they were not sure how to get these coloured stickers.
As per the recent advisory issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the “self-destructive type” hologram-based stickers of light blue colour should be used for petrol/CNG and orange colour for diesel vehicles. The self-destructive type is for the security purpose. The Government has introduced grey colour for all other vehicles.
“I am aware of the new policy but confused where to go to procure the stickers. The Government should advertise or announce on radio or television then only people will get to know,” said a businessman who travels to Delhi from Gurugram every day.
An executive with a multinational firm, who travels from Ghaziabad to Delhi, said, “It seems the implementing authority itself is not sure. Are stickers available at petrol pump, regional transport offices? Commuters are quite confused.”
When asked, Sanjeev Singla, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Gurugram, said, “As of now, we have not got any information or notification from the State transport authority of Haryana regarding the implementation of coloured stickers.”
However, Delhi will be the first to implement the colour coding policy. The transport Department of the city Government has successfully implemented the hologram based colour stickers on Wednesday but that too for only the newly purchased vehicles not for the older/existing ones.
“The policy has been started in Delhi from Wednesday onwards but currently it is implemented only for the new vehicles not for the existing vehicles. The decision for implementing it to the older vehicles is pending due to some reasons, so the department has decided to divide it in stages. In the first stage newly purchased vehicles will be covered and in the next stage which in process will cover the existing vehicles,” said a senior ranking official from the transport department.
The official further said, “The department has its own authorised vendor which is assigned with the response of creating the stickers and also it will issue the stickers to the vehicle owners during the registration. Moreover, the system is not new as if one will see, earlier also the vehicles had a transparent plate/sticker pasted on their windshield which has the details of vehicle but now the only new thing is color. Earlier it was transparent.”
Currently there are a total number of 1,07,56,768 vehicles, including in the Capital up to March 2018.
“The process has just started and the concerned departments should implement and enforcement properly in order to control air pollution as well as to make the policy successful,” said Anumita Roy Choudhary, Executive Director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).