The chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday told the chief secretaries of at least eight states that they face being arrested if they fail to furnish details of cities with the worst air pollution by Tuesday.
Coming down heavily on the counsel of various states, justiceSwatanter Kumar asked the states to furnish information on cities that have the worst quality of air, the vehicle population with bifurcation of diesel and petrol vehicles, and the latest population count.
“The chief secretary of each state must submit these details by tomorrow. We will have to issue bailable warrants to the chief secretaries of states who fail to do so by tomorrow,” Kumar said.
Tuesday is the last day before the tribunal closes for the summer. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Punjab were among those required to file their response.
The tribunal was hearing an application seeking to extend a ban imposed on the sale of new diesel vehicles with a capacity of more than 2000cc to states and cities other than the national capital region (NCR).
The court was submitted a report by the Central Pollution Control Board on the rising pollution levels in 15 cities—Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Nagpur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pune.
The Supreme Court has since 16 December 2015 banned the registration of new diesel vehicles with a capacity of more than 2,000cc in NCR. A ban has also been imposed in Kerala, but only on the sale of old vehicles.
AnumitaRoychowdhury, executive director of the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based environment think-tank, said, “If NGT is hearing a case regarding diesel vehicles in other states, it can be an opportunity to create a basket of fiscal and regulatory measures to control dieselization of personal vehicle segment.”
“Clean diesel norms of Euro VI will come only in 2020. For trucks and buses, ensure nationwide implementation of Bharat stage IV norms immediately. Controlling dieselization is important to reduce toxic risk,” she added.
The plea to extend the ban was opposed by the ministry of heavy industry and enterprise, which moved an application urging the tribunal not to restrict the movement or registration of diesel vehicles in cities other than Delhi.
