NGT directs govt to submit its views on air pollution in Delhi

The Economic Times , Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Correspondent : TNN
NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday directed the Union transport ministry to submit its views on what is contributing to air pollution in Delhi. Reacting to the Centre's previous affidavits which stated that transport isn't the major contributor to poor air quality, the NGT bench headed by chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the ministry to come back on Tuesday with substantive arguments on what could be causing such severe air pollution.

Sanjay Upadhyay, petitioner Vardhaman Kaushik's lawyer, highlighted how the ministry and other agencies have been dodging action to control sources of air pollution. "Nothing has happened since last October. There are no substantial submissions and everybody, especially the transport ministry, is in a mode of denial. We have to accept that norms for polluting old vehicles are very lax. We have made our submissions to NGT on this."

The Union transport ministry had filed an application in NGT on April 27 against a ban on old diesel vehicles claiming that any "stringent measure of ad hoc nature to ban vehicles on the basis of age will not provide any holistic solution to the pollution problem." The ministry had argued that "in-depth academic analysis and observations clearly enumerate that the age of a vehicle cannot be considered as a salient factor for contributing to pollution in the NCR as there are other significant factors."

Quoting a letter from Dinesh Mohan, a Volvo Chair professor emeritus at IIT Delhi, the ministry had cited a research paper—benchmarking vehicle and passenger travel characteristics in Delhi for on-road emission analysis—to establish its point that only 7% of the vehicles are over 10 years old. The paper was published in the international journal Elsevier.

In subsequent affidavits, the ministry had claimed that more than 10 year old diesel vehicles contribute to less than 1% of PM 2.5 (fine, respirable pollution particles) emissions in the city. Their argument was based on a study by professor Mohan and other IIT scientists.

The ministry had also submitted data taken at R K Puram which cited that on Sundays or holidays, despite traffic being low, the PM 2.5 levels remained high. NGT had slammed the study as it failed to explain what was causing high air pollution levels on holidays.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has also criticized the ministry for using studies by IIT Delhi "selectively to play down the problem of vehicular pollution and block the ban on old diesel vehicles."

"There are no current source apportionment studies to tell us what is contributing to how much air pollution. Delhi government has commissioned one to IIT Kanpur, but that is yet to publish. The IIT Delhi studies should be taken seriously in the absence of any other report," said Balendu Shekhar, who is representing transport ministry. Pinky Anand, additional solicitor general who is arguing for the Centre didn't appear on Monday.

 
SOURCE : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/pollution/ngt-directs-govt-to-submit-its-views-on-air-pollution-in-delhi/articleshow/48061311.cms?prtpage=1
 


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