Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 1: Moving in top gear to control pollution in the national capital soon after coming to power, the BJP government in Delhi has directed the petrol pumps in Delhi not to supply fuel to the vehicles older than 15 years after March 31, the Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced on Saturday.
The announcement was made following a meeting with officials to discuss measures to combat air pollution in the national capital. Mr Sirsa said the government was taking stringent steps to curb vehicular emissions that add to the air pollution.
The meeting focused on key policy decisions, including restrictions on older vehicles, mandatory anti-smog measures, and the transition to electric public transport. Mr Sirsa, who took charge on Monday, said a team would be formed to identify such vehicles. “We are installing gadgets at petrol pumps which will identify vehicles older than 15 years, and no fuel will be provided to them,” Mr Sirsa said after the meeting.
Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) have a policy under which diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years are not allowed on the roads. An order in 2021 had also said that such vehicles would be impounded and sent to the scrapyard if they were found operating on the roads after January 1, 2022. Mr Sirsa said the government’s initial focus would be on heavy vehicles entering Delhi and teams would check whether the laid-down rules were being followed. He added that the Delhi government would inform the Union Ministry of Petroleum about this decision.
In addition to restricting fuel supply to older vehicles, Mr Sirsa also announced a series of other measures to check pollution. Stating that there were several big organisations in Delhi which cause pollution, the minister said they would be instructed to install new anti-pollution “gadgets” including asking all the high-rise buildings, hotels, and commercial complexes in the capital to compulsorily install anti-smog guns to curb air pollution levels.
Furthermore, he said nearly 90% of the public CNG buses in Delhi would be phased out by December 2025 and replaced by electric buses as part of the government’s push towards cleaner and sustainable public transport. The announcements come as part of Delhi’s broader efforts to combat air pollution, a significant challenge for the city’s residents.
Announcing other steps, Mr Sirsa said a plantation drive will be held every year and university students will be encouraged to take part in it. “New forests will be created in the vacant land in Delhi so that pollution can be reduced. We will also start working on cloud seeding,” he said.
In a reference to the previous AAP government’s claims that stubble burning and other factors in states like Haryana and Uttar Pradesh contributed to pollution in Delhi, Mr Sirsa said, “We have only one goal: The one who is causing pollution will also provide the solution. When we reduce pollution in our state, only then will we be able to tell other states. Factors within Delhi contribute to over 50 per cent of the capital’s pollution.”
Despite slight improvements in recent years, Delhi – which is one of the most polluted cities in the world – saw 157 days in which the air quality index or AQI was poor or worse.
The Supreme Court in October, last year, had refused to entertain a plea challenging the Delhi government’s policy to to scrap diesel and petrol vehicles older than 10 years and 15 years, respectively. A Bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka had advised petitioner Nagalakshmi Laxmi Narayanan to file a representation before the appropriate authority and pursue a proper legal course.
The petitioner had challenged the Delhi government’s “guidelines for handling end-of-life vehicles in public places of Delhi” issued on February 20, 2024, in compliance with the 2015 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
“The applicant purchased a vehicle prior to the NGT’s 2015 order, and paid full taxes and registration fees for 15 years. The retrospective application of the guidelines to vehicles purchased before the 2015 order is arbitrary, violates the applicant’s legitimate expectation, and deprives the applicant of their right to property under Article 300A of the Constitution,” the plea had claimed.
The intervention was sought in the MC Mehta batch of cases filed in 1985 seeking directions to check pollution in the National Capital and adjoining areas. The plea had said with the scrappage policy mandating early retirement of “overaged” vehicles, owners were not compensated for the unused portion of the registration fees.
