The Delhi High Court on Monday seeks response from the Central government on a petition directing public and private sector oil companies to contribute funds to the Delhi-NCR transportation services to compensate the environmental harm.
A division bench comprised of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Datta was hearing a petition filed by an organisation named Tsunami on Road seeking directions to oil companies to make financial contributions in accordance with corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The bench sought responses from the Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Road Transport and Highways, Environment and Forest.
According to the petition, the government should be ordered to appoint a committee of technical and environmental experts to investigate the public transportation systems in and around the national capital and offer recommendations.
The Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) noted that the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ 2018 report acknowledged that the transportation sector is the main source of PM2.5 emission (41%), and that vehicular pollution is a significant and particularly dangerous pollutant to human health.
That is why, according to the petition, oil companies have a greater social responsibility or commitment in reducing vehicular pollution.
“A better public transport system is a dire need for a heavily polluted city like Delhi. This is a universally accepted fact world-wide that mass public transport methods are the most important and cost-effective means for reducing air pollution, traffic congestion especially in 50 lakhs plus cities. In Delhi with a population of 1.7 crore, it is expected that 75-85% of the public should use it if congestion is to be avoided,” the plea reads.
The petition filed through advocate Sumant Bharadwaj further stated that according to the international guidelines, the three most important areas that must be covered by CSR are the environment, health, and education.
According to the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Rules, 2014, a company must spend at least 2% of its profits on CSR, and oil companies are among the top profit-making companies in the country, with profits from just three of them totaling nearly 1 lakh crore.
