The National Green Tribunal on Friday ordered car manufacturer Volkswagen to deposit an interim amount of Rs 100 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board for having allegedly flouted environmental norms by using a cheat device that lowered vehicle emissions only during tests, PTI reported.
A bench headed by the tribunal’s chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel set up a committee to calculate the quantum of the environmental loss caused by the company’s diesel cars. It comprises officials of the pollution control board, the ministries of environment, forest and climate change and heavy industries, and the Automotive Research Association of India.
The green tribunal ordered the committee to submit its report within a month. It also directed the company and the petitioner to appear before the panel within seven days. The petitions, filed by a schoolteacher Saloni Ailawadi and a few others, are seeking a ban on the sale of Volkswagen vehicles for allegedly violating emission norms.
Although the scam came to light in the United States in 2015, the Automotive Research Association of India had found a significant variation between emissions of cars during tests and on the road. In October that year, the German carmaker had recalled around 1 lakh cars from India.
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