Delhi fuel ban: No petrol to 15+ years old and no diesel to 10+ years old vehicles!

More than 10-year old diesel vehicles and more than 15-year old petrol vehicles have been banned from plying on the roads of Delhi-NCR for a few years now. Recent news is that there will now be stricter enforcement of this law, with fuel pumps being restricted to provide fuel to these vehicles that have reached or crossed their end-of-life. Here’s more information about the Delhi fuel ban.

Aim to curb pollution

In an attempt to curb the ever-rising air pollution levels in the Capital, the National Green Tribunal had ordered to ban diesel cars that were over 10-years old and petrol cars that were over 15-years old to be parked and run in the Delhi-NCR area. The Supreme Court had also given a green light to this ban back in 2018. These vehicles, if spotted, could be seized by the authorities, and the owners, thereby, forced to scrap these vehicles, even if they were capable of passing the pollution check and were functioning without any issues.

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The backlash

While certain companies and individuals have supported this move by the authorities, there has been a major backlash from a wide section of the society, majorly from owners of such vehicles and other sensible people. The key argument revolves around this blanket ban being ridiculous and unhelpful towards reducing pollution in reality, and rather being in favour of automakers and other stakeholders to facilitate an increase in sales of new vehicles. This also puts a burden on the owners of these vehicles, who are forced to get rid of them and buy new vehicles (which, by the way, are getting expensive by the day), despite their old vehicles being fully capable of passing the fitness and pollution checks. It is to be noted, though, that the ban on such vehicles isn’t new and has been in place for around ten years now.

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Cameras, policing, and anxiety

There has been an installation of special-purpose cameras and deployment of both Delhi Police and traffic police teams at over 350 fuel pumps across the city, in order to keep a check on the fuel stations to comply with the directive and refuse fuel to end-of-life vehicles. There have been multiple reports of owners being forced to sell their vehicles at dirt cheap prices, and many vehicles being impounded by the authorities.

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