The TrickyScribe: Supreme Court on Monday accepted the suggestions of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to mark vehicles plying in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) with hologram-based coloured stickers indicating the nature of fuel being used.
Colour-coded stickers can be used to segregate vehicles and hence help in curbing pollution by restricting the use of dirtier vehicles during poor category days.
Green number plates for electric and hybrid vehicles
Apex Court also asked Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, who was representing MoRTH, to consider having green number plates for electric and hybrid vehicles who assured the bench that the ministry would look into it and come up with a decision soon.
A Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice M B Lokur, was told by MoRTH that hologram-based stickers of light-blue colour will be used for petrol and CNG run vehicles with similar orange stickers on diesel vehicles.
READ MORE: Designed ergonomically, idMASK2 claims to filter out 95% of pollutants
The bench, also comprising justices S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta, directed MoRTH to implement the use of coloured stickers on vehicles plying in Delhi-NCR by September 30. Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as amicus curiae in the air pollution matter, had earlier suggested to the bench that colour-coded stickers should be used to identify the nature of fuel being consumed by the vehicle.
Better than Kejriwal’s odd-even rationing
Citing the example of Paris, Singh argued that colour coding would reasonably be more effective than ‘odd-even scheme’ in restricting pollution whenever it reached an alarming level as the authorities could identify polluting vehicles without examining them.
“It is important to classify fuel according to its polluting properties. This would help policymakers and the public in identifying cleaner vehicles. Paris has classified vehicles into six categories based on fuel and issued colour-coded stickers for identification. This would be more scientific than the ‘odd-even scheme’ that is being followed presently,” she told the bench.
READ MORE: TERI SAS to engage Youth, launches Climate Jamboree
It may be mentioned here that the Delhi government had to resort to the policy of odd-even, rationing vehicle use. Private vehicles were allowed to run based on the last number of their licence plates. Odd-numbered cars are allowed to run on odd dates while even-numbered cars can only run on even dates.
