Officers ‘hesitant’, need speedy action against old petrol & diesel vehicles: Transport dept to Delhi Police
With the air quality deteriorating in Delhi, the Transport Department had launched a joint drive with other enforcement agencies against old petrol and diesel vehicles.
Since October 11 till November 15, over 1.38 lakh challans, worth Rs 138 crore, have been issued against vehicles for not having pollution under control (PUC) certificates in the national capital, Delhi Police data shows. (PTI) Maintaining that traffic police officers are “hesitant” in confiscating end-of-life vehicles (ELV) — petrol and diesel vehicles that have completed 10 and 15 years in service, respectively — the Delhi Transport Commissioner Tuesday wrote to the police chief seeking directions to all officers concerned to strictly enforce guidelines.
With the air quality deteriorating in Delhi, the Transport Department had launched a joint drive with other enforcement agencies against old petrol and diesel vehicles.
In a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora, Principal Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Transport Department, Prashant Goyal, wrote: “… the transport department has issued guidelines for handling ELVs in public places… Delhi Traffic Police has been declared as one of the enforcement agencies… the agencies have to conduct continuous enforcement drives for phasing out ELVs from the public places…”
“… apparently at field level, there is some lack of clarity and Delhi Traffic Police officers are hesitant in catching ELVs… Given the rapidly deteriorating air quality situation in Delhi, Union government, CAQM and Government of NCT of Delhi would like expeditious targeting of such vehicles…,” the letter added. He also requested Arora to direct all officers to take strict action against such vehicles.
Goyal also wrote: “It would also help… if some police personnel are deployed to work along with the enforcement team of the transport department.”
In response, Additional CP (Traffic) Dinesh K Gupta said: “Action against end-of-life vehicles has been prompt. All guidelines have been followed. All vehicles that are older than 10 to 15 years are confiscated as soon as they are found flouting norms. They are directly handed over to scrap dealers.”
The Transport Department had earlier urged the Traffic Police to deploy four teams per MCD zone, in coordination with its enforcement teams, to seize and impound ELVs as well as e-rickshaws that are unregistered and do not have fitness certificates and hand them over to the designated Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF) for action.
“There is a manpower shortage in the Transport Department’s enforcement wing. So, we requested police to deploy personnel for the drive,” said an official.
As per data shared by the department, 1,868 vehicles — 50% are e-rickshaws — have been impounded between October 11 and 22 evening. While 554 cars have been impounded, 202 of the impounded vehicles are bikes, 895 are e-rickshaws and 167 are unregistered e-rickshaws.
The department has authorised 12 RVSFs for each MCD zone to work with enforcement agencies. As per rules, while the department can issue permits for the release of ELVs impounded for the first time, any ELV impounded for the second time would not be released. The release of impounded vehicles is directly monitored by the department.
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