Better Late than Never !
---------------------------------
Supreme
Court orders seizure of 15 year old petrol vehicles , 10 year old diesel
variants in Delhi
VEHICLE POPULATION of Delhi
:
Vehicles facing
impounding
= 37,91,917
Petrol Vehicles less than
15 years = 67,67,897
Diesel Vehicles less than 10
years = 5,24,487
Total
Vehicles
= 1,10,84301
In 2016 alone , some 10 lakh
new vehicles got added . Assume 11 lakhs in 2017 and 12 lakhs in 2018
May be some 4 lakh vehicles
are becoming older than 15 years of age , year after year and will need to be
scrapped
PAST INTERVENTIONS :
In
2015, The National Green Tribunal had banned such vehicles
In
2016 , NGT had asked the authorities ( RTO ? ) to de-register all 10 year old
diesel vehicles in the capital . In an appeal against this , SC refused to
annul NGT order
CURRENT ORDERS :
#
To Central Pollution Control Board [ CPCB ]
Immediately create a Social Media web site or account where people could
complain
about air pollution
#
To the Government ( State Government ? )
Impound all OLD vehicles in the NCR
#
To Transport Department
Publish a list of such vehicles on your web site and also impound them if found
on the
Road. Also publish the list in newspapers. Prevent such vehicles from entering
Delhi
In
the meantime , for the next 10 days , EPCA ( Environment Pollution – Prevention
and Control – Authority ), has issued following orders :
#
Stop all stone crushers and hot mix plants
#
Stop working of all industries using coal and biomass as fuel
#
Stop all diesel generators ( DG sets )
#
Shut down brick kilns in Haryana, Rajasthan and UP
#
Close down the industrial area of Mundka
#
All Chief Secretaries of the states involved to set up teams to patrol and
impose fines
on violators for garbage burning , industrial air pollution , dust
mismanagement and
visibly polluting vehicles
QUESTIONS :
#
Ownership of old vehicles
· Do
current owners of the impounded vehicles still continue to remain as “ owners “
?
· If
not , ownership passes on to whom ? To Central / State Govt ?
Municipality ?
#
Storage of old vehicles
· Assume
each vehicle needs 12 feet x 8 feet = 100 sq ft of storage area
On that basis , 38 lakh vehicles will need 3,530 Hectares of storage
yard area
I believe , currently even for its disposal
of 10,000 tons of daily garbage , Delhi needs 800 hectares , which it does not
have !
Where is Authority going to find 3,530
hectares ? – even if , each year , incoming 3 lakh old vehicles gets balanced
out by outgoing ( being scrapped ) 3 lakh vehicles
#
Cost of towing away and storage
· For
towing away each old vehicle , contractor will charge at least Rs 300
Multiply this with 38 Lakh vehicles !
Annual storage cost will be another Rs 500
per vehicle ( guards / lighting etc )
As per the
latest draft manual on municipal solid waste management prepared by the Union
Ministry of Urban Development, three million tonnes of waste can be accommodated on 40 ha of land ( keeping in mind that the life of a
landfill is 20 years).
Delhi needs 800 ha of land for its garbage dumps alone , which
would cost Rs 80,000 crore
going by the present circle rate !
How much
money will be required for 3,530 hectares ? To be raised by taxes ?
#
Disposal
· If
ownership still vests with the current owners then do authorities have any
right to dispose off the vehicles ( ie : sell to scrap dealers ? )
· If
yes , do authorities have to credit current owners’ account with the
sale-proceeds ?
· If
ownership gets automatically transferred to the “ Authorities “ , how is it
supposed to dispose off these vehicles so that these do nor “ re-appear “ on
the roads after a few weeks ?
#
Why scrap entire vehicle ? Why not
retrofit ?
· In
an OLD vehicle,
Only “ Polluting Sub Assembly “ is the
ENGINE
Other “ Non-Polluting Sub Assemblies “ are
: Body – Chasis – Transmission – Tyres etc
So , why SCRAP those non-polluting parts ?
Why not just scrap the old engine and
retro-fit the vehicle with a brand NEW engine ( BS VI compliant ) ?
That will mean re-utilizing some 80 % of
the asset and , at the same time getting rid of the air pollution !
· If
the SC insists that the entire OLD vehicle must be scrapped , then the
questions are :
·
# How many years will it take
them to finish this mammoth job ?
# Scrapping will use
Oxy-Acetylene torches for cutting the vehicles . Will that not
Add tremendously
to Delhi’s air pollution ?
#
Impact on Employment
· Even
if we assume that some 28 lakh ( out of these 38 lakh old ) vehicles are “
Owner Driven “ , then the remaining 10 lakh must be driven by employed drivers
From today , they will be without a job !
#
Supreme Court of New Delhi ?
In one of my
earlier blog ( dt 11 May
2016 ) , I wrote :
·
Is air pollution only affecting the people of Delhi ?
·
Is it not as bad in cities like Mumbai / Kolkata / Chennai /
Bangalore etc ?
·
Why are MLAs of these States not enacting laws to control
pollution ?
·
Why is Supreme Court passing orders ( diesel vehicles / taxies )
only for Delhi ?
·
Does Supreme Court think that citizens of these other cities are
immune to the ill
effects of pollution caused by diesel vehicles ?
·
Why are State Legislatures happy to " pass the buck "
to Supreme Court ?
That is " Abdication
of Responsibility " !
References
:
PIYUSH PLAN ? …………………………………………
[ 27 March 2016 ]
Retiring Old Vehicles - Gadkari Style ? ……….
[ 30 May 2016 ]
Young or Old ? ………………………………………………[ 27 Aug 2016 ]
From OLD to NEW ? No , go NEWER ! ……….[ 22 Sept 2016 ]
Building Castles in the Air ? ………………………..[ 12 March 2017 ]
Best out of a Bad Bargain ? ………………………….[ 29 March 2017 ]
Car Grave-Yard of World ? ……………………………[ 14 Feb 2018 ]
One door closes ; Another
opens ……………..[ 27 Feb 2018 ]
Mahindra Accelo : Saluting a pioneer …………..[ 19 June 2018 ]
Scrapping Old Vehicles : Swiss Challenge Solution [ 24 July 2018 ]
01
Nov 2018
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
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