Order

Realising the urgency and importance of protection and improvement of the environment, this Court has given directions from time to time and impressed upon the authorities to take urgent steps to tackle the acute problem of vehicular pollution in Delhi. Assurances have been held out to the Court through various affidavits filed by the compe­tent officers that effective steps shall be taken in a phased manner within a specified time span. Inspite of the matter having engaged the attention of this Court for a long time and lengthy debates on each hearing, precious little appear to have been done by the State Admin­istration to check and control the vehicular pollution. We are rather distressed at this apathy of the State Administration, when according to the White Paper published by the Government of India, the vehicular pollution contributes 70% of the air pollution as compared to 20% in 1970. In the White Paper published by the Government of India, a dead line of 1st April, 1998 had been proposed for implementation of major actions. No concrete steps have however, been taken till date in spite of the assurances held out in the affidavit dated November 18, 1996.

We find from the report submitted by the Authority appointed vide Gazette Notification dated 29th January, 1998 that none of the major actions, as proposed, has been implemented. The Authority headed by Shri Bhure Lal has also proposed certain measures for immediate im­provement of air quality and has given a time frame but for the time being we are not engaging our attention to that time frame. We are, however, of the view that to arrest the growing pollution of air certain steps need to be taken immediately We, therefore, direct :-

1. Implementation of directions to restrict plying of commer­cial vehicles including taxis, which are 15 years old, by 2nd October, 1998.

2. Restriction on plying of goods vehicles during the day time shall be strictly enforced by 15th August, 1998.

3. Expansion of pre-mixed oil dispensors (petrol and 2T oil) shall be undertaken by 31st December, 1998.

4. Ban on supply of loose 2T oils at petrol stations and serv­ice garages shall be enforced by 31st December, 1998.

The Committee headed by Shri Bhure Lal has also proposed the following measures within the time frame in its action taken report filed in the Court.

Time frame

(A) Augmentation of public   1.4.2001 transport (stage carriage)                           to 10,000 buses.

(B) Elimination of leaded   1.9.1998 petrol from NCT Delhi                        as proposed by the               Authority and agreed

to by the Ministry of

Petroleum and Natural

Gas.

(C) Supply of only pre-mix 31.12.1998 petrol in all petrol filling                   stations to two-stroke engine vehicles.

(D) Replacement of all pre  31.3.2000 1990 autos and taxis                               with new vehi­cles on                       clean fuels.

(E) Financial incentives for  31.3.2001 replacement of all post                     1900 autos and taxis with new vehicles on                       clean fuels.

(F) No 8-year old buses to  1.4.2000 ply except on CNG or                       other clean fuels.

(G) Entire city bus fleet (DTC  31.3.2001 & Private) to be steadily con­verted to single fuel mode on CNG.