Agencies don’t conduct proper audit of heavy vehicles entering Delhi: EPCA

The Supreme Court appointed environment watchdog Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) has found that none of the administrative agencies in Delhi conduct a proper audit of the total number of trucks coming from outside the Capital.

This has an impact on collecting funds for conserving the environment and to conduct studies on vehicular pollution caused by these trucks.

“There is no proper registration of cars coming in the Delhi, which leads to a huge loss in collecting environment compensation charge (ECC). ECC was imposed by Supreme Court in 2015 to reduce air pollution by curbing the number of heavy vehicles entering Delhi. It had also directed that the ECC collected be used for pollution control,” said a member of EPCA.

In a report submitted before the apex court on Monday, EPCA said the calculation of the shortfall was based on two independent audits conducted to ascertain the number of trucks coming into Delhi, one of which was commissioned by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation that has been tasked with collecting the ECC.

In response to this, the Delhi government’s Transport department said that there is no record of heavy vehicles coming into Delhi and added that civic agencies and police keep these records.

EPCA officials said that it is vital to keep a tab of vehicles entering the Capital because then only emissions by these vehicles can be calculated.

“There cannot be any survey on these vehicles and the created pollution, because there is no proper record,” said a member of EPCA.

The EPCA, this year, gave Delhi Police a map of 17 turnaround points outside the Capital’s border, for better implementation of the ban on entry trucks, if and when required.

These turnaround points are at Siwah in Panipat, Sonepat, Bahalgarh, Rohtak, Sampla, Bahadurgarh, Panchgaon and Rajiv Chowk in Gurugram, Bawal, Badkhal, Kithwari Palwal, KMP and Ballabgarh in Haryana. In Uttar Pradesh, the points are Loni Tiraha, Bhopura Border, Seema Border and UP Gate.

The ban on entry of trucks in the Capital was imposed for the first time on November 9 last year, after pollution levels touched the “severe plus” category.

The notification issued by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, after EPCA’S nod, asked the Delhi Traffic Police and the Municipal Corporations of Delhi to prohibit the entry of heavy and medium goods vehicles, except those carrying essential commodities, in the national Capital.