Delhi now restricts sale of CNG stickers only to one outlet

The government-certified stickers for four-wheeled gas-powered vehicles to enable their plying during the implementation of the odd-even scheme will be available only at one place in the city, the Delhi government announced on Tuesday.

"From Wednesday, these stickers will be available only at CGO complex on Lodhi Road," Transport Minister Gopal Rai said at a press conference.

Till Tuesday, the stickers for low-emission cars run on compressed natural gas - exempted from the odd-even scheme - were available at 95 CNG filling stations in Delhi and 19 such stations in the national capital region.

So far, 95 lakh stickers have been sold. These stickers have a special logo that can be detected with the help of an instrument.

The move came after reports that the CNG stickers were pasted on petrol vehicles by charging some money.

The transport minister told reporters that in a sting operation by a news channel it was found that a person identified as Deepak Sen -- a staff at Vivek Vihar CNG station in east Delhi -- had taken Rs.2,800 and pasted the sticker on a petrol car.

"As soon as we came to know about this, we organised a meeting with the Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) officials and informed them about the matter."

"Deepak has been suspended. A First Information Report has been registered by IGL against him under the section of breach of trust at Vivek Vihar police station," Rai said.

Briefing about the fourth day of odd-even scheme, Rai said that Delhiites by and large complied with the rules by driving odd-numbered cars which resulted in smooth traffic movement on Tuesday.

Rai said that till 3 p.m. as many as 303 violators were fined by the traffic police, whereas in the entire day 207 cars were challaned by the enforcement teams of the transport department.

A liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) operated car which was plying with a CNG sticker pasted on its windshield, was impounded by the authorities.

Rai said he also visited Rajiv Chowk Metro Station in the afternoon to take stock of the situation there.

"Not even a single commuter at the Metro station complained me about any problem. The crowd there was not unmanageable," Rai said.

According to figures released by the Delhi Metro, ridership on January 4 was less than the average ridership of the last five Mondays - excluding January 4. On January 4, the ridership was 28.19 lakh whereas average ridership of last five Mondays was 28.25 lakh.

He said the Delhi government's odd-even formula brought down the pollution levels in inner Delhi. However, there had not been much effect in the outer Delhi for various reasons, such as movement of trucks in these parts.

He said the ambient air data was being collected by teams of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) at 20 locations in peripheral areas of Delhi.

"Data given by DPCC shows that in inner Delhi areas like Lajpat Nagar and Pragati Maidan, PM 2.5 levels were 221 and 248 respectively whereas in bordering areas like Chhatarpur and Sangam Vihar it was 436 and 415 respectively," Rai added.