Karnataka has over 39 lakh vehicles older than 20 years
New Delhi, Jul 30: Delhi has more than 36 lakh vehicles older than 20 years, the second highest in the country after Karnataka, which has over 39 lakh such vehicles, the Centre said on Friday.
Responding to a query in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Choubey said there are 2,14,25,295 vehicles older than 20 years in the country.
He said these figures exclude vehicles in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Lakshadweep as they are "not in centralised Vahan 4 portal".
While Karnataka has 39,48,120 vehicles older than 20 years, Delhi has 36,14,671, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 26,20.946 such vehicles, as per the data shared by the minister in a written response.
Kerala recorded 20.67 lakh 20-year-old vehicles, Tamil Nadu has 15.99 lakh such vehicles and Punjab 15.32 lakh vehicles, he said.
On being asked about pollution caused by these vehicles, Choubey said no assessment has been made regarding the pollution caused by these vehicles in the country.
The number of 20-year-old vehicles in Delhi assume significance as the Supreme Court had ruled in 2018 that any registered diesel vehicle more than 10 years old, and any petrol vehicle over 15 years old cannot operate in NCR. These rules have been laid down in various orders issued by the NGT (2015) and the Supreme Court (2018).
However, earlier this year, the Centre had proposed a new draft vehicle-scrapping policy, which will allow owners to use their old vehicles after a fitness test and on payment of a higher fee.
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ED searches Empuraan producer Gopalan's chit fund firm in FEMA case
New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted searches at the chit fund company premises of Kerala-based businessman Gokulam Gopalan, one of the producers of the movie "L2: Empuraan", as part of an alleged Rs 1,000 crore foreign exchange violation case, official sources said.
The searches are being undertaken at five premises in various states, including in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Kochi (Kerala), under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the sources said.
The action is being undertaken against Gopalan and his company Sree Gopalan chit and Finance Co. Ltd. for alleged FEMA violations of Rs 1,000 crore with certain NRIs and some related "unauthorised" transactions, the sources.
The agency is also understood to be analysing some "cheating" cases against the company for possible investigation under the anti-money laundering law.
"L2: Empuraan", the second part of the "Lucifer" movie, a trilogy planned by the Prithviraj-Mohanlal team, has become a topic of hot debate over its critique of right-wing politics and the covert mention of the Gujarat riots.
Mohanlal recently expressed regret over the raging row and assured that the controversial portions would be removed from the movie.
