The Delhi government told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it had de-registered 40 lakh vehicles out of the total 1.1 crore, complying with the National Green TribunalĄ¯s order, which was upheld by the SC, to get old polluting vehicles off the roads. The government said this will translate into 36% of Delhi-registered being pulled out.
Appearing before a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, M M Shantanagoudar and S Abdul Nazeer, Delhi government counsel S Wasim A Qadri said petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years had been barred from plying on city roads.
Qadri made the statement after the bench said the NGT had passed its order on April 7, 2015, but the government had not enforced it.
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The government sprang into action and started de-registering old vehicles after the SC on October 29 directed the transport departments of Delhi and surrounding states to act tough against polluting vehicles and impound them if found plying on the roads.
DelhiĄ¯s transport department has published a list of all such vehicles on its website. There are approximately 3.3 lakh 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 36.7 lakh 15-year-old petrol vehicles in the city.
Ą°It is submitted that public notice is being issued by the transport department informing the general public to not ply diesel vehicles which are more than 10 years old and petrol vehicles which are 15 years old in NCR.
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The general public is being informed that in case of violation, their vehicles are liable to be impounded by enforcement agencies. The list of such vehicles that have crossed the said threshold have been published on the departmentĄ¯s website,Ąą Delhi government said in its affidavit.
Qadri informed the bench that radio frequency identification device (RFID) will be installed at 13 entry points to track the entry of commercial vehicles into Delhi. He said RFID had already been installed in Aya Nagar.
The Central Pollution Control Board informed the court that it had opened accounts on Twitter and Facebook to register complaints on environmental pollution by citizens.