Your order quite impractical, SC told on ecology charge

The Supreme Court's order on collection of an environmental compensation charge from commercial vehicles entering this city is impossible to implement.

The judges were told this on Monday by the consortium given the responsibility to collect the charge. Last month, the SC had made changes in this executive arrangement; these, the consortium's lawyer told a bench headed by the chief justice, were so impractical that it wished to opt out of the contract.

Senior counsel Shyam Divan, representing the SMYR consortium, contended its contract with the South Delhi Municipal Corporation did not envisage the new SC-imposed burden on its infrastructure and finances. The SC order, for instance, exempted vehicles carrying food and essential items. However, the consortium lacks the personnel to verify what each carries; any decision was bound to be disputed, leading to turmoil and possible violence. More, the order to collect and deposit the amount daily with the authorities also called for additional persons and a mechanism to prevent pilferage, a major problem in this sector.

Further, the heavy cost of installing an RFID electronic system to record details of vehicles is now fixed on the consortium. This cost is outside its contract with the authorities. In some entry points, there is not even electricity to run such modern systems. However, the order not only imposes this burden on the consortium but also states that if not done, it would be considered a breach of the SC instruction, with serious consequences.

Collection of toll, counsel argued, is a duty of the authorities and cannot be imposed on a private party which had earlier contracted with the civic body on financially viable terms. Presently, the consortium was barely breaking even on the operation; the new liability to collect toll and give it to the authorities as a collector will be "disruptive".

Reiterating a plea to recall the order or allow the consortium to opt out of the contract, he said they were given only a month to implement all parts of the order, an "unreal time frame" for such a huge project.

The bench adjourned the hearing for Friday, as the central and city governments and a few other parties are yet to reply to the consortium's pleas.