AAP trade wing to discuss NGT ban of diesel vehicles

The trade wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is expected to hold a meeting at 2 p.m. at the Delhi Secretariat on Thursday to discuss the National Green Tribunal's (NGT's) decision to ban diesel vehicles that are ten years or older.

According to reports, the meeting will be attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Transport Minister Satendar Jain. Transport sector representatives will also be in attendance and it is expected that both sides will seek to come up with solutions that would pass the NGT's muster.

On Monday, the NGT directed the Delhi Regional Transport Office (RTO) to de-register all diesel vehicles over 10 years old in the Delhi-NCR region. It also directed the Delhi RTO to provide the list of deregistered vehicles to the traffic police in the Delhi-NCR region and to publish a public notice of the NGT order.

In its order, the NGT said Delhi's odd-even scheme had hardly improved the Delhi-NCR region's air quality and also said that the number of impounded old diesel vehicles have increased drastically. It said that it is an accepted fact that diesel vehicles pollute more than other sources.

Last week, the Supreme Court demanded that the Delhi government share data on the number of diesel vehicles, older than 10 years, and petrol vehicles, older than 15 years, that were impounded by the RTO in the past one year. The Delhi government replied that the Delhi RTO has impounded around 3,000 vehicles in the past one year, but have been released since then.

According to the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, the authority to de-register old vehicles falls under the regional transport department and not the NGT.