In major respite for residents of the national Capital, the Delhi government said on Thursday that car owners will now be able to get their vehicles retro-fitted with CNG kits, starting Friday.
In major respite for residents of the national Capital, the Delhi government said on Thursday that car owners will now be able to get their vehicles retro-fitted with CNG kits, starting Friday.
The government told the Delhi High Court that the CNG kit manufacturers and suppliers can get themselves registered with the Transport Department online, which will enable them to fit CNG kits in the "in-use" vehicles.
DNA had reported on Wednesday about the deadlock between CNG kit dealers and the Transport Department, which had led to a complete halt in conversion of vehicles to CNG, leading to air pollution in the city.
The submission by the Delhi government was made before Justice Manmohan, after he rapped the government for the delay in the process of registration of CNG kit distributors, saying lack of the kits was "adding to rising air pollution" in the city.
"This court had issued directions. Still the government has not yet made functional its CNG module/software of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), where the manufacturers, importers and distributors are to register themselves for fitting authorised CNG kits. You say that the file in this regard has not been cleared. How can a minister or an officer sit on a file for 20-25 days once the court has issued a direction?" the judge asked.
It asked the counsel for the Delhi government's Transport Department whether "this was the way the authorities function?". "They take the file to their home, keep it in their pockets and don't even think that due to this, lots of people are facing hardship," the court said.
"You talk of CNG but do not allow manufacturers to fit kits in vehicles," the court said, adding, "Later you will say that because of diesel vehicles, there is a rise in air pollution."
Transport Department lawyer Sanjay Ghose then informed the court that the minister (Satyender Jain) has taken a view that the "software module developed by the NIC shall be fully functional from Friday onwards."
The Delhi government had banned retro-fitting of CNG kits in vehicles in June after complaints that CNG dealers were using cheaper quality Chinese kits.
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