Delhi Pollution: Supreme Court suggests barring taxis registered outside Delhi from entering national capital

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a reply from Delhi government as to whether it could control the entry of taxis into Delhi from other States as an additional step to reduce air pollution in the national capital..A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia noted that a large number of app-based taxis operating in Delhi are registered in other States and they often enter Delhi carrying only one passenger."We may also note that there is a large number of the App based taxis in Delhi which have registrations in different States. If we look at the roads, each one is carrying only one passenger," the Court noted..The Court has now suggested that the entry of such vehicles could be monitored so that only taxis registered in Delhi are allowed to ply in Delhi, particularly during the festive season.."We would like to know whether there is any way of monitoring, especially, during this period of time that only the taxis registered in Delhi are permitted to ply as an additional measure to control the pollution," the Court said..The Court was hearing an application regarding air pollution in the national capital, in a matter concerning various environmental issues..While hearing the matter yesterday, the top court also opined that odd-even scheme devised by the Delhi government to tackle air pollution was "mere optics" without any substantial result.Odd-even scheme involves having vehicles with odd registration numbers ply on roads on certain days and even registration number on other days."Have you evaluated how it worked in previous years? Such schemes are only optics," the Court had asked during the hearing. .In the same case, the bench dwelt on the adverse effects of stubble burning as well by farmers in the northern States of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.Stubble burning refers to the practice of farmers setting fire to straw stubble that remains in the fields after the harvest of grains like wheat and paddy.The Court opined that this practice should be stopped since it contributes significantly to air pollution in the northern region of the country including Delhi..Order on air pollution and firecrackers applicable to all States, not just Delhi: Supreme Court.[Read Order]