"Why didn't you do it yourself? You projected the drive, it was your scheme. It was sponsored by your government. It should have been handled by you. You could have directed analysis and sampling of the pollution levels," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said.
Haryana government was addressing the Tribunal in pursuance to its directions seeking information about the actual impact of the initiative on the pollution level in the city.
The counsel for Haryana government informed the Tribunal that a study was carried out by an NGO with regard to the impact of the drive on the environment.
According to the NGO, levels of PM 2.5 emitted by vehicles were lower in the city and pollution level was down by almost 21 per cent due to the 'car-free day' initiative, he said.
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Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) is an air pollutant that is a concern for people's health when levels in air are high.
The green panel expressed displeasure over the stark difference in the data of the vehicles passing through Delhi as provided by various departments and asked Delhi Police to come out with cumulative data on the number of vehicle entering from different check points.
"You people will never let an order come," the NGT bench, which is deliberating on a mechanism to devise an alternative route for commercial vehicles passing through the city to decongest the roads and reduce vehicular emissions, said.
"On one hand, Delhi traffic police has informed the bench that only 4,852 goods transport vehicles enter daily while additional commissioner of police (Traffic) has written to an english daily that about 46,000 trucks enter Delhi daily on an average," she said.
To this, the traffic police said this was data with regard to those vehicles only which are coming towards Delhi from Panipat toll on the northern border.