Deposit Rs 100 crore by Friday, NGT Tells Volkswagen
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New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked German auto major Volkswagen to deposit Rs 100 crore by Friday or face punitive action, in accordance with its November 16, 2018 order. The tribunal also warned the auto major that in case it failed to deposit the money within 24 hours, its India head could be arrested and all his properties may be seized, as per a report by IANS.
On November 16, last year, the tribunal asked the car-maker to deposit Rs 100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board within a month for causing "serious environmental damage" by using a ‘cheat device’ that lowered vehicular emissions only during tests.
Volkswagen had challenged the order in the Supreme Court but the court refused to stay the NGT’s order.
This Tuesday, a four-member committee set up by the NGT in November, penalised Volkswagen Rs 171.34 crore for causing air pollution in Delhi due to excess nitrogen oxide emissions, the IANS report said.
A report in Indian Express, said the NGT panel was formed in the wake of the 2015 global emission scandal, called ‘Dieselgate’ when Volkswagen was found guilty of international programming its diesel engines with ‘cheat devices’ to meet US environmental standards but actually emitted up to 40 times more nitrous oxides (NOx) in real world conditions.
As per an expert panel report accessed by Indian Express, which used Delhi as the base city to calculate damages, the cost of health damage by Volkswagen vehicles was estimated at roughly Rs 171.34 crore due to additional NOx emission.
Recall that the German auto major had admitted in 2017 that 11 million of its vehicles were fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to skirt emission tests.
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