Centre's curbs on end-of-life vehicles: Not even a band-aid

Indian Express

05-07-2025

The Delhi government has asked the Centre's Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to pause the fuel ban on end-of-life vehicles. The order to stop fuel supply to 10-year-old diesel-run vehicles and 15-year-old petrol vehicles, which came into effect on July 1, was justified as an anti-pollution measure. Delhi's Environment Minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, however, said that the move could be 'counter-productive'. He is right, to an extent. The restrictions could push owners of ageing vehicles to source diesel or petrol from Delhi's neighbouring states and create conditions for an illicit inter-state fuel market. Delhi CM Rekha Gupta's argument that the ban will jeopardise the livelihoods of a large section of the city's population that depends on two-wheelers is also valid. However, both the restrictions and the pushback against them are symptomatic of a longstanding failing of both the Centre and its agencies, including the CAQM, as well as successive Delhi governments. The Capital has longed for a well-thought-out plan to clean its air for at least a decade-and-a-half. All it has got are blunt measures and piecemeal solutions.
The CAQM had put the onus on petrol pump dealers to enforce the ban. Failure to do so would attract penalties under Section 192 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. As a Petrol Dealers Association petition to the Delhi High Court pointed out, the move burdened 'petrol pump owners and their attendants… without them being necessarily equipped or authorised under any law to carry out such a responsibility'. On paper, the end-of-life vehicles are flagged by the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system installed at fuel stations and match the data against the government's Vahan portal. The trial run for these systems began at the end of last year, and last month the CAQM reportedly claimed that the ANPR scanners were ready to implement the ban on end-of-life vehicles. But, as Sirsa admitted, at several places in the city, ANPRs are riddled with technical glitches, including faulty sensors and incorrect placement of cameras. That the system is not integrated across the NCR shows that very little planning went into making the restrictions effective.
Stemming vehicular pollution requires sustained engagement with the complex reasons behind motorisation — lifestyle choices, livelihood imperatives and urban sprawl that increases travel time and distances. Successive governments in Delhi haven't addressed this imperative adequately. Even the relatively easier task of nudging people to invest in the fitness of their vehicles has never received the policy attention it required. In the months it has been in office, Delhi's BJP government has given little indication of learning from the failures of its predecessors. It must course correct.