Chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) Bhure Lal, on November 14, 2018, recommended to the pollution watchdog CPCB that it should implement either the odd-even scheme or impose a complete ban on non-CNG private vehicles, if the air pollution level in Delhi increases again.
In a letter to CPCB member secretary Prashant Gargava, Lal said all cities, which have similar emergency plans – like Paris or Beijing – include restrictions on private vehicles, which are done by either number plate or by fuel type or its age. He said vehicles contribute as much as 40 per cent of the total emission load in Delhi and roughly 30 per cent in the region. “In this situation, the only option is to look at either a complete ban on all private vehicles (without the identification of petrol or diesel), other than CNG and/or restriction on plying by number plate (odd-even),” he said. “However, please note that the odd-even scheme, as practiced in other cities for similar pollution abatement, is done for extended hours and includes all private vehicles,”
“This is extremely hazardous for our health and unacceptable. We also know that the role of crop burning has been to exacerbate this situation,” he said. “It is for this reason that the EPCA, for the past many years, has stressed on the need for augmentation of public transport, not just in Delhi but in the NCR. The Comprehensive Action Plan, which is now notified, but still nowhere close to implementation, includes time-bound action on public transport,” Lal said.
This is not the first time that Lal has recommended completely banning non-CNG private vehicles in the national capital. On October 31, 2018, he had proposed banning all private vehicles but this time he went ahead and proposed a ban on all non-CNG private and commercial vehicles.
Courtesy/By: Shubham Mathur
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18 Nov 2018
