Eight states have to submit crucial data on 15 of India's most polluted cities to the National Green Tribunal or NGT this morning. The green court has told chief secretaries of the states that they must share the details it wants or "face arrest".
Here are latest developments:
On its last day of work today before summer vacations, the NGT is expected to decide whether to extend to these cities, a Supreme Court mandated ban on old diesel vehicles and those of more than 2000 cc capacity in Delhi, the world's most polluted capital.
The 15 cities, identified in a new list by the Central Pollution Control Board, include Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Patna, Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi, Nagpur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Pune.
On Monday, it slammed state governments accusing them of making a "joke" of its orders by not showing up well-prepared for a hearing and ordered them to detail by today the number of vehicles on their roads and their age.
"The chief secretary of each state must submit these details by tomorrow. We will have to issue bailable warrants to the chief secretaries of states who fail to do so by tomorrow," said the green court, which wants to assess how auto emissions are affecting air pollution in these cities.
Ahead of today's crucial hearing, the Centre's ministry of heavy industries on Monday petitioned the NGT not to extend the ban on the registration of new diesel-powered cars saying it would "have an adverse effect on the momentum of growth of the auto industry."
The Centre also requested the court not to extend a ban on the movement of diesel vehicles more than 10 years old, imposed in Delhi, to the other cities.
"The effective life of present day vehicles is more than 10 years. Such a ban will have serious consequences on finances of vehicle owners," the ministry said.
In Tokyo, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley played down the ban on registration of new large diesel-powered vehicles in Delhi, saying it is a "transient" phase and India is a market large enough for it not to adversely affect auto companies.
After Delhi, the NGT ordered that the registration of new 2000 cc plus diesel cars and the movement of diesel vehicles more than 10 years old be prohibited in seven Kerala cities too. The ban on new cars has been suspended while the Kerala High Court hears a petition by auto makers.
The 10 states asked to submit data today are - Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Punjab.
