The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea challenging the decision of the AAP government to implement odd-even road rationing scheme in the national capital from November 4-15.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel questioned the maintainability of the plea and “dismissed it as withdrawn”.

The plea, filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, said a CPCB assessment of impact of odd-even scheme on air quality of Delhi had found that ambient air quality of the city had deteriorated during its implementation earlier than when the restriction was not in place.

Under the scheme, vehicles with odd and even numbered plates ply on alternate days. It was implemented in Delhi during January and April of 2016.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on September 13 had said the scheme was part of the seven-point Parali Pradushan (pollution caused by crop stubble burning) action plan.

At a time CPCB, Delhi Pollution Control Committee have unequivocally stated that odd-even policy, when implemented previouslyfailed to curb the air pollution, the stand of government of Delhi to implement the odd-even policy merely on a study done by people of other countries is not only unpleasant but also downgrades the reputation of institutes like CPCB and DPCC,” the plea said.

The CPCB in its report in 2016 had told the NGT that there is no data to suggest that odd-even scheme has any impact on decrease in vehicular pollution and the fluctuations in PM10 and PM2.5 is due to weather and change in wind patterns.

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