New Delhi, July 4: The Delhi government said it will not impound old vehicles or enforce a fuel ban on them for now, citing strong public backlash and implementation hurdles, after the central pollution watchdog ordered petrol stations to deny fuel to overage vehicles starting this week.
Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the administration was re-evaluating the enforcement of restrictions on end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) – petrol vehicles older than 15 years and diesel vehicles older than 10 years – and would explore solutions based on actual emissions rather than blanket bans.
“We will clean Delhi’s environment, but we will not allow Delhiites’ vehicles to be impounded. This is Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s promise to the people,” Sirsa told reporters on Thursday. He added that he had written to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) requesting a pause on its directive.
The CAQM had, in an April 23 order, mandated that from July 1, ELVs identified by automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras at fuel stations in Delhi be denied petrol or diesel. Similar measures were set to begin in five adjoining districts of the National Capital Region (NCR) on November 1, and across the wider NCR by April 2026.
Delhi’s Transport Department and traffic police had started impounding such vehicles at fuel stations earlier this week. According to CAQM estimates, Delhi is home to nearly 6.2 million ELVs, with an additional 4.4 million across other NCR districts.
However, Sirsa’s office said the ANPR-based enforcement would not proceed from Friday, though there was no formal notification from the Delhi government confirming a rollback.
In his letter to the CAQM, Sirsa cited technological integration issues and poor coordination with neighbouring states, warning that the current plan had triggered widespread public discontent. “Under these circumstances, it is not feasible to implement the denial of fuel to ELVs,” he wrote.
Chief Minister Gupta echoed these concerns, saying some residents were emotionally attached to their old vehicles and that her government would raise the issue wherever needed.
The opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of caving to public pressure only after the outcry. “The BJP government was hiding behind a court order. But when people united, it was forced to withdraw. In a democracy, people are supreme,” said AAP’s Delhi president Saurabh Bharadwaj.
Sirsa, meanwhile, accused the previous AAP government of colluding with car dealers and supporting the ANPR plan for financial gains. The National Green Tribunal had ordered a ban on ELVs in the NCR in 2015, but previous attempts to implement this — including a similar 2022 proposal by then environment minister Gopal Rai — were never notified.
