The Delhi government has implemented a ban on fuel supply for end-of-life vehicles — with more than a dozen cars seized by officials on Tuesday. The new policy prohibits diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years from refueling in the city, regardless of their registration states. It has also sparked outrage on social media with some insisting that it was ‘absurd’ to mandate scraping of personal vehicles that were well maintained and used sparingly.

“My parent’s car is 15 years old, barely 20k km driven, still runs like new. Engine untouched, PUC perfect. Yet it must be scrapped under govt absurd policy. After looting 30–40% taxes, they will now seize your car at petrol pumps. Just to keep middle class under loans forever!” an X user fumed.

“Has anyone done the environmental impact of scrapping perfectly good vehicles and building new vehicles to replace those?” asked another.

“Please resist, otherwise they’ll go even farther if people comply meekly. All that’s required for such older vehicles should be a valid PUC and additional road tax that they can collect in 5 year slabs,” insisted a third.

Meanwhile the Delhi Traffic police said that it had seized 16 vehicles on the first day from various petrol pumps.

“We are following the orders of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), from today, 10-15 year old vehicles will not get diesel and petrol from any petrol pump… Traffic police have seized 16 vehicles at various petrol pumps…most of them are motorcycles,…due to more awareness in the media, advertisements, many people were aware and therefore fewer vehicles were coming, and people are contemplating how to move these vehicles away from Delhi,” said Special CP Traffic Management, Delhi Police, Ajay Chaudhary.

Non-compliance by fuel station operators may attract penalties under Section 192 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. Vehicles violating the ban will be impounded, and their owners will face legal action. Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera systems have been installed at fuel stations to identify end-of-life vehicles in real-time and capture their registration details. Fuel stations will also display signage indicating the ban on fuel supply to end-of-life vehicles and maintain a log of denied transactions for reporting to the Transport Department. The drive will be in practice until further notice, and from November 1, it will also be implemented in neighbouring districts.

(With inputs from agencies)