New Delhi [India], March 27 : The Delhi High Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre and AAP government on a plea seeking directions to the government to form a committee of technical and environmental experts to study the public transport systems of Delhi-NCR.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) stated that as per the report of October 2018, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has accepted that the transport sector is the major source of emission of PM2.5 (41 pc) followed by dust from roads and other sources (21.5 pc) and industries (18.6 pc) in the capital.
Petitioner NGO namely 'Tsunami on Roads' through advocate Sanjay Kulshreshtha stated that vehicular pollution due to petrol and diesel is a significant and most risky pollutant to human health which is why oil compes have bigger social responsibility or commitment to reduce vehicular pollution. Therefore, the social responsibility to restore or compensate for environmental damage occurring due to the products of these oil compes cannot be overemphasized!
The air pollution is now not only affecting the pediatric to geriatric population but also started affecting the unborn i.e., human fetus, increasing chances of birth defects, fetal growth retardation and premature birth for no. the fault of them, the plea said.
"Economic viability is extremely necessary to run a public transport system. However, today we have to re-evaluate our policies for public transport in heavily polluted cities weighing its advantages and disadvantages in broader perspectives, or in other words revenue generation by DTC and DMRC or financial viability should not be the only criteria for its assessment, instead, we must also take in to account the various indirect advantages including saving of government's and citizen's money spent to fight pollution or to treat various diseases caused by this alarming air pollution," the PIL stated.
After noting down the submission made by the petitioner's counsel the bench of Justices Satish Chander Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta on Monday sought responses from respondents in the matter and listed it for July 21.
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