THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2015

New Delhi: National GreenTribunal on Monday tookstrong exception to the Delhigovernment’s submission thatonly 41 of 700 vehicles enteringthe city were found to be pollut-ing. It directed the enforce-ment wing of the transport de-partment, Delhi PollutionControl Committee (DPCC),weights and measures depart-ment and Delhi Police to sendtheir teams to check vehicles

at three entry points on Mon-day night. “Let them smell die-sel through the night… and re-port to us,” an NGT bench said.

Vehicles have to be moni-tored at Sonepat-Delhi border,Ghaziabad-Delhi border andBahadurgarh-Delhi border be-tween 5pm and 7am. Theteams will have to be fully

equipped and they have to doc-ument the age, weight and theextent of pollution caused byeach vehicle.

Meanwhile, the tribunalsaid the government shouldcarry out a study on whetherDelhi’s traffic can handle10,000 more buses that it isplanning to deploy. “It’shealthy that you have decidedto bring in so many buses, butyou must have a study onwhether Delhi’s roads canhandle that kind of traffic,” itsaid.

The bench also expresseddispleasure after learning thatDTC didn’t file any report onfitness test of its buses. “Oneyear is not enough to conduct astudy? Seven of your buseshad to be impounded. Haveyou checked how much noiseCNG buses are making? Haveany of these vehicles been test-ed for noise pollution? Youthink you have the right toturn people of Delhi deaf?” thebench asked.

NGT also pulled up the Ha-ryana government for not sub-mitting a status report on theeastern and western peripher-

al expressways that can be cru-cial in taking load off Delhi’sroads. The lawyer represent-ing Haryana claimed that apart of the western peripheralexpressway from Manesar toPalwal will be ready by 2016.“There is no magic stick forthe bypasses. You have to con-

struct it,” it said while askingit to file a status report onWednesday.

Observing that the work ismoving at a “snail’s pace”,NGT said, “You had given anundertaking to the SupremeCourt that both expresswayswould be completed by 2017.

Why have you not allottedwork till date,” the benchasked. On construction ofweighbridges, NHAI submit-ted it can construct them onlyat places where it has its owntoll booths. The bench directedNHAI chairman to be presentin person on Wednesday.

The Centre, on the otherhand, continued to argue

against phasing out of vehi-cles based on age. PinkyAnand, additional solicitorgeneral, once again quotedfrom the IIT reports that wererubbished by the tribunal ear-lier. “Banning old diesel vehi-cles will have a miniscule ef-fect as studies have suggestedthey can reduce pollution by1%,” she said.

“What about the rest of the99%? How can we deal withthat? What do you mean by youdon’t have details?” the tribu-nal asked.

“Government of India issaying vehicles don’t causepollution, Delhi government issaying vehicles from outsidealso not causing pollution.Something must be wrongsomewhere,” the bench added.

NGT asked the Centre if ithad identified low pollutionzones where polluting vehiclescan be moved. It also clarifiedthat no NOC will be issued fortransfer of vehicles to otherparts of NCR because the banis enforced everywhere in thisregion. The Centre claimedidentifying such places is theresponsibility of the states.

Questions Plan To Induct 10,000 New Buses, Pulls Up DTC For Lax Testing And Noise Pollution

WHAT OTHERS GET➤ Delhi govern-ment slammed for not implement-ing any direction of NGT on fixingweighbridges or pollution checks of vehicles ➤ NGT refuses to accept affidavits of Haryana and

NHAI on bypasses;asks for a progress report

➤ On Indraprastha Gas Limited’s request on allowing it to expand supply in NCR, NGT says, ‘Who has stopped you? You can say clearly you have come here for business’

POINTED QUESTIONSWHAT DTC IS ASKED

3Why can’t you buy

new recov-ery trucks?

1Have you con-ducted a study on

how much noise CNG buses make?

2You think you have the right

to turn people of Delhi deaf?

QUESTIONSFOR CENTRE➤ Have you identi-fied areas with low pollution?➤ Have you identi-fied what should be the life of a vehicle?➤ If old vehicles are causing 1% of the pollution, whatabout the 99%?

NGT fumes at city govt’s diesel replyTIMES NEWS NETWORK

PM2.5AIR QUALITY INDEXFRIGHT

Source: SAFAR@MoES-IITM-IMD (10 stations)

Delhi 79 Good

Tomorrow 73 Good

Pune 42 Good

Tomorrow 39 Good

Hyderabad 45 Good

Chennai 43 Good

Mumbai 32 Good

US Embassy data calculated as per Indian standards by SAFAR@MoES-IITM-IMD

Based on 1 Station Data Per City at 4pm

him said he was firm and in amood to take on the AAP gov-ernment. “I told the CM thatDelhiites have lots of expec-tations from AAP…” he toldreporters. And in what canonly be described as an at-tempt to dare the state gov-ernment, he said he had of-fered the CM a list of 500victims like the Anand Par-bat girl and asked him to paya compensation of Rs 5 lakheach to all of them as in thecase of the girl. Kejriwal re-fused to take the list.

He, according to Jain,asked Bassi to “take the list to

“The police force should notto be affected by such re-marks.”

Jain accused Delhi Policeof politicising the probeinto the girl's murder. Bassi,however, claimed “we take ev-ery incident as a challen-ge…Strenuous efforts weremade to arrest the suspect-s…If there are certain expectations which are be-yond the law, they can't be fulfilled.” He was referring tothe demand to arrest the sus-pect’s mother. He said: “Weowe our duty to the rule of law. It'll be unfortu-

ing to reporters soon afterthat, he had said that whetherthe police should be underthe Centre or the state gov-ernment was a “political is-sue”. He added: “My personalopinion is that the Delhi Po-lice system is an excellentsystem.”

He had denied that Kejri-wal was putting any pressureon Delhi Police, saying: “Hehas his own ideas and he isconcerned with issues of Del-hi. Anyone who is concernedwith such issues will have hisjudgement impacted by localissues. It’s natural.”

Jain told reporters.The CM also asked Bassi

for names of inspectors whowere being repeatedly madeheads of police stations andthe ones who were ignored.Jain said Bassi refused toshare this information.

“As a professional police-man, I can say that the force is

nate if police succumbs topublic pressure”.

Kejriwal also asked Bassito provide details aboutcrimes against women. “Weasked Bassi to give us detailson the number of FIRs regis-tered on the basis of com-plaints by women and FIRsnot registered by police,”

COMING PREPARED: Bassi on his way to meet the CM

New Delhi: Chief ministerArvind Kejriwal’s choice, thenew chairperson of DelhiCommission for Women, Swa-ti Maliwal has set out on her as-signment in mission mode.Announcing that she wouldnot spare even her husband ifhe was involved in somethingwrong, Maliwal said she won’tlet the gruesome murder of 19-year-old Minakshi in AnandParbat get sidetracked as a rou-tine crime matter.

On Monday, she sought anurgent appointment with lieu-tenant governor Najeeb Jungto discuss the matter and bringfocus on women’s safety. “A girlkept crying for help for twoyears and neither the policenor the system helped her. Shewas then killed in full publicview. This is not merely Mi-nakshi’s death but the death ofthe system and society,” thenew DCW chief said.

The role of Delhi Policewill also be closely watched ininvestigations related to casesunder DCW. “We want to workin cooperation with the Cen-tre, state, LG and Delhi Police,”Maliwal said. Taking a digwithout naming her predeces-sor, former Congress MLABarkha Shukla Singh, Mali-wal said she will do in eightmonths what did not happen ineight years.

Reacting to questionsabout cases regarding KumarVishwas and Somnath Bharti,she said she won’t spare evenher husband Naveen Jaihind ifhe something wrong. “I willnot allow myself or anyoneelse to politicize this institu-tion,” she added rubbishingsuggestions that she was relat-ed to Kejriwal.

“When I see people andmedia pass judgments on meand my selection for the post bylinking it to my marriage toNaveen Jaihind (a senior AAPfunctionary) I feel it is yet an-other reflection of the patriar-chal and chauvinistic socialmindset. Swati Maliwal Jai-hind has her own identity as anactivist who has been workingin the social sector from 2006,”she said.

The other three members

of DCW, including Dr FarheenMalick, Promila Gupta and Sa-rika Chaudhary, are also firsttime appointees. Maliwal dis-missed the charge that thesewomen were members of AAPsaying she was “unaware ofany such association.”

Declaring zero tolerance torape and molestation, Maliwalis preparing to constitute anexpert committee to draw ablueprint on women’s safetyand an “action brigade” of vol-unteers to join the grassrootsinterventions. She has alsoplanned action against thosewho don’t appear on beingsummoned.

“I also plan to look at thecomplaint handling policy andhow it was framed. It has a pro-vision that DCW will not doanything after a case is handedover to the police. I propose tostudy and change this to givethe commission a say in theway investigations are carriedout and concluded,” she said.

Maliwal’s inspiration tofight social ills remains her ac-tivist friend, AAP member andKejriwal’s trusted team mem-ber Santosh Koli, who is nomore. The 28-year-old met atragic end in a hit-and-run casein Gurgaon in June, 2013. Kej-riwal and AAP all along heldthat there was foul play in herdeath. Maliwal now plans toseek reopening of the casefrom Haryana.

New DCW chief beginsjourney in mission mode

Yogesh Kumar

New Delhi: CM Arvind Kejri-wal on Monday took to the so-cial media to express his con-cern over the deterioratinglaw and order situation in thecity. In a video message, Kejri-wal was heard making an ap-peal to PM Narendra Modi ei-ther to spare one day a weekfor Delhi as the city policecome under the purview ofthe Centre or hand over the po-lice force to the state govern-ment.

The video clip appeared onthe Facebook pages of AAPand the CM. With a melanch-olic music playing in the back-drop, the video shows a candlegleaming in the dark. Kejri-wal’s voice is heard as he nar-rates the story of Minakshi

who wasstabbed todeath andhow every-one in herneighbour-hood is liv-ing in fearsince theincidenthappened.

He highlights how the 19-year-old girl was brutally mur-dered in Anand Parbat in fullpublic view.

Newspaper clippings ofthe murder emerge and disappear in the clip while thecandle stays there as a re-minder of the struggle thatlies ahead.

Kejriwal makes the pointthat law and order situation isdeteriorating in Delhi andwomen in particular are feel-ing more and more insecure.

He refers to the PM as “sir”and says, “As PM you have totake care of the whole nation-…sir, either you take out sometime for Delhi or give police tous. With the support of peopleof Delhi, we will turnaroundthe law and order situation,”Kejriwal says.

He asks the PM to ensureenough policing around Min-kashi’s neighbourhood aspeople there are very scared atpresent and say that there ishardly any police presence inthe area.

Give us DelhiPolice: CM

tells Modi onFacebook

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PM Modi

The manner in which thestate and central

governments have conductedthemselves in this issue is notconducive to good policymaking. What is needed issolid, incontrovertible datafrom an independent body onexactly which sourcecontributes how much to airpollution in Delhi. Policy mustthen be based on what thedata tells us rather than onimpressions or on which lobbyis most vocal. Given themagnitude of the problem,and the disastrous effect it hason public health, it is a shamethat these simple steps havenot yet been taken.

Times View

New Delhi: The Delhi highcourt on Monday refused to st-ay the Delhi government’s ad-vertisements showcasing theachievements of chief minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal and AAP.

“Interim relief sought bythe petitioner by way of thiswrit petition cannot be grant-ed, unless I hear the Centre onwhat steps they have taken wi-th regard to the constitution ofthe three-member implement-ing body meant to ensure com-pliance of the Government Ad-

vertising (Content Regulation)Guidelines, 2014, laid down bythe SC,” Justice V P Vaish said.

The court issued notice tothe Centre, asking it to file anaffidavit within one week on

the SC order and fixed the mat-ter for further hearing on Au-gust 3. The court said it wouldwait for their response beforepassing any interim order onthe plea filed by NGO NyayaaPath, which has also sought di-rection to the Delhi governme-

nt to immediately withdraw arecent television advertise-ment and “restrain itself fromsuch type of image-buildingexercise of Arvind Kejriwal”.

The government had on Ju-ly 12 come out with an adver-tisement with the tagline “Wopareshaan karte rahein, humkaam karte rahein”. Referringto the recent ad published fromMumbai, the petitioner has so-ught direction to the Centre,LG and the Delhi governmentthat its cost be recovered fromKejriwal, who was being glori-fied by it.

Centre asked if it has takensteps to implement SC order

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DELHI GOVT AD

STRONG START: Swati Maliwalsought an urgent meeting with LG