Plying vehicles in Rohtang Pass: NGT to hear plea tomorrow

Taxi operators today rushed to the National Green Tribunal seeking reconsideration of its directions limiting the entry of all diesel and petrol tourist vehicles in Himachal Pradesh's Rohtang Pass till August 14 to 1,000 per day.
The move comes a day after the Supreme Court declined to stay the directions and asking the affected parties to address their grievances before the green tribunal which agreed to hear it tomorrow.
The matter was mentioned before a bench headed by judicial member U D Salvi by a counsel for taxi operators union saying in compliance with the Supreme Court they are approaching the tribunal and due to urgency in matter he requested for urgent hearing of the plea today itself.

"It's an urgent matter as the directions of tribunal would cause irreparable loss to the taxi operators and moreover as it is a peak tourist season in the area, the order would also cause great inconvenience to them," the counsel said.
The bench, however, asked the counsel to file the plea before the registry and it will consider it tomorrow.
Supreme Court yesterday had only stayed one direction of the green panel that all vehicles would be subjected to pollution checks and should get certificates at the check post to comply with BS-IV standards before being allowed to operate in the scenic Rohtang Pass area.

The 13,050 feet pass links the Kullu Valley to the remote district of Lahaul and Spiti.

The taxi operators have got support from the Himachal Pradesh government in the apex court which said there were lot of problems in complying with the directives of the NGT and sought stay on certain directions.
However, the apex court had observed that "when such steps are taken there will be a hue and cry" and cited an example of SC order directing the implementation of CNG operated public transport system in national capital.
The apex court's vacation bench, while asking the taxi operators to approach the NGT, had noted that they were not heard properly before it as they had made an oral plea before it.

Him-Aanchal Taxi Operators Union had submitted that the NGT order was coming in the way of not only taxi operators but also the middle-class tourists.