Petition against fuel adulteration: NGT orders inspection of 10 petrol bunks [Read Petition]

The National Green Tribunal yesterday issued notice to the Central government, States of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and three State-owned oil companies in a petition seeking inspection of petrol pumps, and closure of those found selling adulterated fuel..The petition has been filed by one Cherub Singla, a Delhi-based engineer. Advocate Avneesh Arputham appeared for Singla..In his petition, a copy of which is with Bar & Bench, Singla has contended that adulteration of fuel supplied to end consumers has contributed to air pollution and “aggravated already terrible conditions”..“[A] substantial cause of this increasing air pollution from vehicular emissions is due to the adulteration of fuels at the stage of sale and even during transportation. It is submitted that fuels like petrol and diesel are often adulterated with fuels like kerosene. This is because kerosene is substantially cheaper than diesel and petrol due to the high subsidies granted by the government and therefore, by adulteration the persons concerned make substantial profits.”.Singla has also submitted details about the failure of the existing regulatory regime of a Control Order to prevent adulteration of fuel..“… weak regulatory regime has permitted this fuel adulteration racket to flourish across India with little or no check on fuel adulteration. An analysis of various news reports clearly reveal that hardly any steps have been taken by the governments or the concerned statutory or regulatory authorities to prevent fuel adulteration and whatever steps that are being taken have failed miserably. Rather, the incidents of fuel adulteration are only increasing”.The petitioner has also submitted that the authorised officers appointed by the Central government and State governments under the Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply, Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Control Order who are responsible for preventing adulteration of fuel have failed to curb the practice due to a combination of reasons..“Authorised Officer has been granted various powers including that of search and seizure, taking samples, inspection of documents etc. and despite all these, fuel adulteration is still rampant..The Regulatory regime as provided for in the control order is wholly inadequate to deal with the problems. Different State governments have appointed different authorised officers for controlling fuel adulteration thereby leading to a lack of cohesion in their activities and effective supervision and enforcement. At the same time there is no regulatory body to direct and supervise the functioning of these officers. More importantly, the Control Order fails to provide any time period or regularity with which Authorised Officers are required to perform their functions to prevent fuel adulteration. It is submitted that this weak regulatory regime has permitted the fuel adulteration racket to flourish which in turn has worsened the air quality across India”, the petition points out..Based on the above Singla has sought a number of directions from the tribunal including:.(i) inspection of fuel quality in petrol pumps across the country;.(ii) closure of petrol pumps and agencies found dealing with adulterated fuel;.(iii) imposition of severe penalty on petrol pump owners and distributors of adulterated fuel in accordance with polluter pays principle;.(iv) notifying public about people who are involved in such activities including publishing their details on official website;.(v) direction to the Authorised Officers to submit periodic reports the concerned Pollution Control Board..The Tribunal after hearing the matter yesterday issued notice and also directed the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Control Committee and Ministry of Petroleum to jointly inspect 10 petrol pumps (selected randomly) in the NCR region for diesel and petrol adulteration. It also directed inspection of 50 vehicles for emissions. This inspection report is to be filed before the next date of hearing, which is January 25, 2016..Petition given below.