Is the banning of 10 years old vehicles in Delhi and NCR the first and the last option?
NGT has banned plying of diesel vehicles of more than 10 years old on the pretext of pollution control. A question arises whether it was the first and the last choice to ban the vehicle and if so whether it was the issue of pollution or some other compelling reasons?
1. Is the pollution being caused by private vehicles? I have a vehicle which is more than 10 years old. It has gone regularly for a pollution check. It has been noticed that it has never pollution more than a prescribed limit at any time during last 10 years. Then .............. ?
2. NGT has failed to notice the conditions on the city roads about the traffic jam in the city where the vehicles are jammed on a idling engine and it should also be a fact that those points must be causing heavy pollution due to idling vehicles. The road conditions are very bad which causes drastic reduction in speed, jams etc ultimately causing pollution. It takes years (on the site) to repair a given stretch of the damaged roads (may be on paper many times repaired). Any check on that ?
3. The pollution check used to be costing somewhere about Rs. 30/- per quarter few years back. It was suddenly raised to about Rs. 90/- per quarter. What compelled Govt. to increase the rates as well as impose service tax. If the govt considers pollution a issue of public interest should not have increased the rates and impose additional service tax. Increase in the rates could not be justified as every year there is an increase in number of vehicles and the pollution checking centres were having idle capacity. Most of the pollution checking centres are housed in the petrol pumps and owned by petrol pump owners where they employ a person to check the pollution of the vehicles and pay only somewhere around 7 to 8,000 per month for a duty of around more than 12 hrs. The NGT also should have come out with a recommendation to reduce the checking fee, issue being of public interest.
4. Will there not be a tendency of the vehicle manufacturer to reduce the quality of the vehicle as all vehicles would have to be scrapped after 10 years of their purchase. So design and quality will be decided for 10 years life span.
There may be many other points. more
NGT has banned plying of diesel vehicles of more than 10 years old on the pretext of pollution control. A question arises whether it was the first and the last choice to ban the vehicle and if so whether it was the issue of pollution or some other compelling reasons?
1. Is the pollution being caused by private vehicles? I have a vehicle which is more than 10 years old. It has gone regularly for a pollution check. It has been noticed that it has never pollution more than a prescribed limit at any time during last 10 years. Then .............. ?
2. NGT has failed to notice the conditions on the city roads about the traffic jam in the city where the vehicles are jammed on a idling engine and it should also be a fact that those points must be causing heavy pollution due to idling vehicles. The road conditions are very bad which causes drastic reduction in speed, jams etc ultimately causing pollution. It takes years (on the site) to repair a given stretch of the damaged roads (may be on paper many times repaired). Any check on that ?
3. The pollution check used to be costing somewhere about Rs. 30/- per quarter few years back. It was suddenly raised to about Rs. 90/- per quarter. What compelled Govt. to increase the rates as well as impose service tax. If the govt considers pollution a issue of public interest should not have increased the rates and impose additional service tax. Increase in the rates could not be justified as every year there is an increase in number of vehicles and the pollution checking centres were having idle capacity. Most of the pollution checking centres are housed in the petrol pumps and owned by petrol pump owners where they employ a person to check the pollution of the vehicles and pay only somewhere around 7 to 8,000 per month for a duty of around more than 12 hrs. The NGT also should have come out with a recommendation to reduce the checking fee, issue being of public interest.
4. Will there not be a tendency of the vehicle manufacturer to reduce the quality of the vehicle as all vehicles would have to be scrapped after 10 years of their purchase. So design and quality will be decided for 10 years life span.
There may be many other points. more
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Mr Virmani, Case to case there can be many situations when a rule is painful to an individual or even does not serve the purpose. But there can not be any solution to suit 100% to everybody. My comments are based on the practice being followed in many countries. Here we are not talking of small cities but NCR/Delhi. Vehicle suitability can be due to quality of vehicles, its usage/mileage or age of vehicles. Commonly accepted formula is age of 10 years or 15 years. I feel age of 10 years for diesel and 15 years for petrol to be reasonable. After this period, road tax should be double and quarterly pollution check. more
Apr 21
Dear Shri Raj Bhatia Ji, It is very nice to have your nice comments. I agree to your contention that there could be a road tax, toll tax etc. to decongest entry of vehicles on certain roads, cities etc. However, is it really possible in all the circumstances that the older the vehicle the more is the pollution getting emitted for the vehicles. I will take an example, many people in the small cities have their office within 3-4 kms and even most of the people residing in the residential complex annexed to their place of work but do have vehicles to travel on week ends and their driving in a month does not exceed say 200 kms a month. In total, the vehicle will be driven for some 20,000/- kms in 10 years. Should this vehicle have the same level of pollution in a city where most people come to their place of working after driving a distance of 20 to 50 kms one way. Is it a right decision or say logical to ban the plying of vehicles after 20,000 kms i.e any cost to the owner somewhere Rs. 300 to 500 per km. more
Apr 21
In any city, land/road area will determine how many cars can ply. There is no magic solution, except to restrict the number of cars on the road. I have seen all over the world some type of restriction in big cities - road tax, toll tax, restriction of heavy duty vehicles etc to cut down numbers to solve traffic problem. With excess number of vehicles, second problem becomes of pollution. It is a commonsense that older the car, more pollution it will cause. Some age limit has to be decided. Initially ten year for diesel cars and 15 years for petrol car would be reasonable. Even though it will be painful to some, but there is no alternative. more
Apr 21
Almost 2 decades ago, when all commercial vehicles, other than interstate vehicles were required to convert into cng, there was humongous support for that judicial step. The current decision of another judicial body has invited the ire of those who own personal motor vehicles???? more
Apr 21
