Two years since the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued orders to ban 10-year-old diesel vehicles, including trucks, from the National Capital, public-sector oil companies are still party to using these polluting vehicles. In an order passed on Thursday, the NGT has asked three public-sector oil companies — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) — to immediately take off trucks that are BS-I and II vehicles from Delhi roads with immediate effect.

According to submissions made by the three companies, which do not own these trucks and use it via contractors, they use more than 830 diesel trucks older than 10 years.

What’s worse, 654 of these vehicles are compliant with BS-I or BS-II emission standards. BS-III emission standards were introduced in Delhi in 2005.

“We direct that all the vehicles of these companies which are working under different contracts in NCR-Delhi and the diesel vehicles which are admittedly more than 10 years old and are BS-I and BS-II compliant shall be withdrawn forthwith from the road. They shall not be plied at all in NCR, Delhi,” the NGT order said, adding that the Managing Directors of these companies would be personally liable for compliance with the direction.

IOCL uses 622 BS-II complaint and two BS-I compliant trucks, while HPCL still uses 30 BH-II complaint trucks.

The BS-III trucks being used by these PSUs will also not be safe too long. The NGT has asked the companies and their contractors to submit “to the Tribunal a complete programme in regard to phasing out of all the diesel vehicles which are more than 10 years old and are BS-III compliant.”

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court had ruled that BS-III vehicles can no longer be sold or registered anywhere in India starting April 1, when the new BS-VI emission norms will come into force.

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