Kerala's transport minister A.K. Saseendran (TV grab)New Delhi: Union minister for shipping and road transport Nitin Gadkari on Saturday assured Kerala of centre's full support for the state's concerns over the ban on diesel vehicles in the state imposed by National Green Tribunal (NGT).
After a meeting with Gadkari here on Saturday Kerala's transport minister A.K. Saseendran told reporters that the centre supported the state's stand over the issue. Gadkari informed that the union government has filed an affidavit in the court in this regard, Saseendran said.
Raising its concerns with the centre over the NGT order, Saseendran had maintained that the ban was 'impractical'.
"The Centre was extremely supportive of state's stand. The union minister, however, asked state to adopt alternate sources of energy for vehicles including compressed natural gas (CNG) at the earliest," Saseendran said.
“The state is not acting against the court order but is trying to buy time before legal proceedings are initiated,” he said.
The NGT Kochi special circuit bench on May 23 had issued a directive banning light and heavy diesel vehicles, which are more than 10 years old, in six major cities, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode, and Kannur.
The NGT had said the violators should be paying Rs 5000 as environmental compensation and that the amount would be collected by traffic police or the pollution control board.
However, the Kerala High Court had stayed the NGT ban on Friday.
