NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has issued a circular to all wings of the PWD after noticing that old vehicles have not been condemned while new vehicles have been purchased as a replacement. "It has been observed that a number of unserviceable government vehicles are pending for either condemnation of disposal in various PWD divisions" says the directive which has been issued to all superintending and executive engineers.
According to a government official, a similar directive was issued by the finance department few months back to all other government departments. The Delhi government has engaged MSTC limited, a government of India company, for the disposal of obsolete, unserviceable articles of the departments and act as a selling agent.
The company would arrange disposal through e-auctions by way of occasional advertisements. As per the procedure the Head of Departments (HoD) are required to send information of obsolete vehicles with proper details about description, location, quantity and quality so that it can be taken forward.
"Non-disposal of condemned vehicles in time leads to deterioration of the condition of the vehicle and thereby chances of getting better prices in the pre-owned market. Moreover, large space is occupied in almost all the departments by these condemned vehicles," says the latest order.
The finance wing in August had stated that, "Departments had obtained the approval from authorities to condemn the vehicles and purchased the new vehicle against the condemned one but had not yet disposed them off", adding that disposing of old vehicles is necessary under the General Financial Rule (GFR).
Doing away with diesel vehicles up to 15 years old and switching to cleaner fuels and promoting electric vehicles is one of the major focus areas of the Delhi government as well as the union Government. In the recently launched winter action plan, of the Aam Aadmi Party government curbing vehicular pollution through old cars one of the major areas of action under the winter action plan launched by the Delhi government this season.