Indian Express: New Delhi: Wednesday, December 06, 2017.
Pollution may
be at critically high levels in the city but the Delhi government’s transport
department does not have any annual data related to the number of “Pollution
Under Control (PUC)” certificates issued by it, the Central Information
Commission has lamented.
Pulling up
the officials for exhibiting “sheer indifference” towards their duty, the CIC
has now directed the department “to compile and publish” annual data about PUC
certificates issued by it to motor vehicles after verifying that they meet
emission and pollution control norms.
On January 18
this year, an RTI applicant Deepak Juneja had sought from the transport
department information about the number of PUC certificates issued for
different class of vehicles in Delhi and the number of petrol/CNG and Diesel
PUC testing centres.
He had also
asked for total licence fee collected by the transport department in the last
five financial years. Not getting any satisfactory response, he filed a
complaint with the Commission.
Information
Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad pointed out that in spite of specific queries
with respect to the PUC certificates and also marking the RTI query correctly
to the branch, no effort was made to attend to the query in the manner
envisioned by the RTI Act.
“The
relevance of the issue raised in this particular case has a direct bearing on
the welfare and creation of liveable conditions of the citizens at large,” Azad
said.
He said as
guaranteed by the Constitution, protection and improvement of public health is
the duty of the State, and the civic bodies discharging this specific duty are
thus mandated to maintain the living conditions of the citizens.
“… The annual
data on the number of PUC certificates issued is not available. It is a moot
point whether in the face of acute pollution impacting the city so adversely,
and assiduous efforts being made by the transport department for controlling
the same, such a data should be compiled and published or not,” he said.
Azad said in
stark contrast from the duty entrusted to them, the conduct of the civic
officials in this case has exhibited sheer indifference and ignorance towards
their statutory duty and also the mandate of law.
He rued that
different branches function as water tight compartments, almost like islands
with no connection with the main issues affecting the lives of citizens.
“The
organisation–the transport department of municipal authority–after assigning
the job of computing to an agency, washes its hands off any further
responsibility of furnishing any information pertaining to its own department,”
he said.
He said no
effort has been made by the public information officer to ensure that
information as sought by the applicant is made accessible to him, instead all
of them appear to be simply competing with each other to evade responsibility
attached to their respective designations.
“What is
extremely disturbing is the oral submissions rendered by the CPIOs indicate
there is neither a mechanism of monitoring nor is the corporation aware of the
data/statistics pertaining to their own department which is maintained by the
agencies,” he said.
Azad said
transport department web site itself declares that vehicular pollution is
considered to be a major source of air pollution in Delhi.
“In the
instant case one particular Unit has replied stating that no such data is
maintained by them and hence there is no authoritative version on behalf of the
Transport Department whether such a data is compiled and published annually or
not,” he said.
He said no
meaningful submission has so far been placed on record by the respondents
(transport department) regarding compilation and publication of the annual data
with respect to PUC certificates.
“The
commission hereby directs the PIO/PUC under Section 19(8)(a)(vi) of the RTI Act
2005 to compile and publish on their website, annual data about number of PUC
certificates issued and fees collected,” he said.
Air quality
in Delhi worsened in the last couple of days with a sharp rise in the level of
particulates, according to official data.
Pollution had
risen to alarmingly high levels in early November in the city, making it
difficult for people to indulge in outdoor activities and forcing closure of
schools.
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