The Supreme Court’s decision comes after India’s National Green Tribunal ordered a ban, last week, on the registration of all diesel cars for almost a month, to help clean up the air in Delhi, which is one of the most polluted cities in the world.
Advertisement
In a radical move to combat against pollution in New Delhi, India’s Supreme Court has ordered a temporary ban on the sale of large diesel cars in Delhi and the surrounding region.
Further, it imposed a total ban on trucks and other goods vehicles not bound for Delhi from entering the capital, and doubled the environment compensation surcharge to be paid by the Delhi-bound vehicles.
All taxis in Delhi including the ones which use taxi hailing apps (Ola, Uber, etc) should be converted to CNG by March 1. Also trucks entering New Delhi will have to pay a environment tax which is hiked 100%.
The judges said traffic from Kundli and Rajokri border shall be diverted to bypass Delhi. It asked the Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to enforce construction norms strictly to stop builders from polluting the NCR region.
The court said, “A ban on registration of such vehicles will not, therefore, affect the common man or the average citizen in the city of Delhi”.
The court had convened yesterday to hear carmakers’ plea against the ban on diesel cars in Delhi and other matters related to the growing air pollution in the nation’s capital. “If you believe this is the way forward, then go ahead and implement”, the court told the Delhi government.
Advertisement
Delhi’s air routinely worsens in the winter as the poor start lighting fires to stay warm and as cooler air and clouds trap pollutants. Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, said on Twitter his company would honour the court’s decision. Recently, the government of Delhi has proposed the odd-even auto numbers to be allowed on the alternate days which is still known only by the Government of Delhi. The apex court also made it clear that the toll collectors shall put in place Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems at their own costs at nine main entry points in the city by November 30 and by January 31, 2016 at all the remaining 118 entry points to the city.
