The Supreme Court sought the response of the Delhi government and the Centre on a plea challenging the Aam Aadmi Party government’s decision to allow fresh permits only for e-auto rickshaws. Auto manufacturers complained that autos running on CNG and BSVI petrol are being discriminated against by the denial of permit.
Bajaj Auto had moved the Supreme Court for removing the cap on auto rickshaws in the capital where the Apex Court said it could be done after empirical data is collected and determining the number of vehicles which can be tolerated on the roads.
Bajaj had referred to EPA reports which sought the removal of the cap of one lakh autos in the city. The said report pointed out the lack or comprehensive public transportation which has led to a huge rise in ownership of vehicles and contributing to pollution.
Over 95,000 permits have been issued and more than 4,200 have been reserved by the Delhi transport department for e-auto rickshaws in order to encourage adoption of electric vehicles. Of these, 35% of the permits have been reserved for women for e-auto rickshaws.
In 2019, the Delhi government was directed by the Supreme Court to freeze the total number of auto-rickshaw permits, and issue new permits in order to replace the old existing permits.
Around 82,000 permits were suspended by the Delhi government.
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The Delhi government launched a campaign on October 18 for the registration of e-auto rickshaws and has received around 3,037 applications so far for e-auto rickshaws.
The campaign launched is in line with the electric vehicle policy (EV policy) and a total of 4,261 e-auto rickshaws permits are up for registration, and out of these, 33% are reserved for women, being 1,406 in numbers. But of the applications received for the registration of e-auto rickshaws, only 3% are from women.