The Hindu : New Delhi News : Drive against polluting vehicles a non-starter

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Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Drive against polluting vehicles a non-starter

By Our Staff Reporter

A policeman checking papers of a vehicle at the U.P. border during the drive to prevent polluting vehicles from adjoining States to enter Delhi. Check teams were conspicuous by their absence at most of the entry points to the Capital on Tuesday. Ph oto: Anu Pushkarna

NEW DELHI, FEB. 1. The much touted drive announced by the Transport Department of Delhi Government against polluting vehicles entering the Capital proved to be a non-starter today as the teams supposed to be "guarding" the 10 boundaries of Delhi and also manning 70 points in other parts of the Capital remained largely conspicuous by their absence.

However, the announcement of the drive had one positive fall-out -- a large number of vehicles were seen queuing up outside pollution checking centres of the Transport Department for procuring the Pollution Under Control certificates without which the department had declared that it would not allow any vehicle to enter the Capital.

Though the announcement of the drive -- under which 10 teams of Transport Department and Delhi Transport Corporation along with Traffic Police personnel were supposed to man the 10 entry points round the clock -- had raised fears of traffic bottlenecks at the borders, the absence of the teams came as a major relief to motorists today.

Neither at Noida border or the Ghazipur border in East Delhi were any teams present to curb the entry of polluting vehicles. This was in stark contrast to the announcement made by the Delhi Transport Minister, Haroon Yusuf, only yesterday that no polluting vehicles would be allowed to enter Delhi from today as they not only defeated the purpose of the Government's efforts to convert to cleaner fuels like CNG for public transport but also threatened the health of t he citizens.

Though no official version was available on why the drive failed to start in right earnest today, perhaps a major reason lay in the fact that the Transport Commissioner, Rajiv Talwar -- who had yesterday stated that all vehicles emitting smoke would be challaned -- today joined the Union Ministry of Tourism as an Additional Director General and that took away some of the sheen from the drive.

It now remains to be seen if the drive -- under which a total of 100 teams comprising between five and seven personnel each would be manning various points -- gets underway tomorrow thereby showing that continuation of projects in Delhi are not person-specific but policy-related.

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