AIR QUALITY monitoring stations located near trees and roads, which possibly skews readings; Pollution Under Control Certificates (PUCC) being issued at the same time for two vehicles, and in some cases within a minute of each other; and no account of money collected in taxes to build parking facilities in the city — these are among the findings of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on measures taken to control air pollution in Delhi, The Indian Express has learnt.
The report, Prevention and Mitigation of Vehicular Air Pollution in Delhi, 2021 will be tabled in Delhi Assembly in the ongoing session. It is among the 14 CAG reports that the BJP has accused the AAP of “suppressing” during its tenure. Former AAP Chief Minister Atishi has called the BJP’s allegations an attempt to mislead, stating that she had forwarded the reports to the Assembly Speaker before the elections. The BJP returned to power in Delhi after 27 years, ending AAP’s 10-year run in power.
According to sources, the CAG report states that a September 2020 audit of 13 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS) under the Delhi Pollution Control Committee shows that all were close to “trees on multiple sides”, which is against Central norms.
Sources familiar with the contents of the report said, “It states that Central Pollution Control Committee guidelines make it clear that trees may also be sources of particulate matter in the form of detritus, pollen or insect parts.”
In its reply in October 2021, the Department of Environment said necessary action will be taken to comply with the norms. The audit report, it is learnt, also flags inadequacy and inaccuracies in issuing PUCCs, which determine whether a vehicle is fit to run on the roads.
Consider this:
- Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, only 46 to 63 per cent of all registered vehicles underwent pollution checks.
- Test check of the PUCC database (September 2019) showed that in 7,643 cases, more than one vehicle was shown to have been checked for emission limits at the same time at the same centre, which is not possible.
- In 76,865 cases, the gap between issuing PUCC from the same centre was less than a minute. Sources said the report points out that PUCC cannot be issued simultaneously to two vehicles at one centre and the entire process cannot be carried out in a minute.
PUCCs were issued to 1.08 lakh out of 65.36 lakh vehicles despite emitting carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons beyond permissible limits.
In its reply, the Transport Department said that there were “bugs” in the system and the process of issuing PUCCs would be handed over to the National Informatics Centre.
The other area which the report looks into is the utilisation of parking charges. Adequate parking spaces discourage road-side parking and reduce road congestion, and is a key step in air pollution mitigation.
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Sources said the report points out that there are no details of the utilisation of funds for most of the amount collected.
“The report states that between 2014-15 and 2020-21, Rs 673.60 crore was collected as parking development charges, out of which Rs 639.92 crore was given to the three Municipal Corporations that existed at the time. The remaining Rs 33.68 crore was retained by the Transport Department… The department did not have details of utilisation of funds collected to create parking facilities,” a source said.
According to the source, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation said in September 2021 that it got Rs 122.55 crore from the Transport Department between 2014 and 2021 for construction of a modern parking system but it had allotted only Rs 27.5 crore for construction in January 2015.
The CAG did not receive a reply from the Delhi government on the issue.