Delhi High Court seeks Central government response on PIL to direct oil companies to contribute CSR funds to public transport in NCR

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response from the Central government on a plea demanding that public and private sector oil companies be directed to contribute funds to public transport services of the Delhi-NCR to compensate the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. .A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta sought responses from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Ministry of Environment and Forest. .The plea was filed by an organisation named Tsunami on Road seeking directions to oil companies to contribute funds under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A plea said that the government must be directed to form a committee of technical and environmental experts to study the public transport systems of in and around the national capital and make suggestions. In its plea, the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) highlighted that the 2018, report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences has accepted that the transport sector is the major source of emission of PM2.5 (41%) and the vehicular pollution is a significant and most risky pollutant to human health. That is why oil companies have bigger social responsibility or commitment to reduce vehicular pollution, the plea said. "A better public transport system is a dire need for a heavily polluted city like Delhi. This is a universally accepted fact world-wide that mass public transport methods are the most important and cost-effective means for reducing air pollution, traffic congestion especially in 50 lakhs plus cities. In Delhi with a population of 1.7 crore, it is expected that 75-85% of the public should use it if congestion is to be avoided," the plea said. .The plea, filed through advocate Sumant Bharadwaj, further stated that as per international guidelines, the three most important areas that need to be covered by CSR are environment, health and education. It was argued that under the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Rules, 2014, a company must spend at least 2% of its profits on CSR and the oil companies are amongst the top profit-making companies in the country with the profit of just three of them amounting to nearly ₹1 lakh crore.