By Kanu Sarda
New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) The Delhi government has proposed a tax on vehicle owners who have two or more vehicles and told the Delhi High Court this was necessary to ease the worsening traffic situation in the capital.

Traffic Police counsel Vikas Pahwa informed a special three judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah, Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice S. Ravinder Bhatt that they have submitted suggestions to the government and they are under consideration.

“To ease out the traffic on the roads first and foremost step is to put an hold on the registration of the vehicles. And for those people who have more than two vehicles registered on their names, we are planning to slap more taxes on them in the form of road taxes, parking charges, area pricing and other such taxes,” Pahwa submitted.

As per traffic police 30 percent of the vehicles plying on the road are cars along with 62 percent of two-wheeler vehicles.

Appreciating the traffic police’s suggestion, the bench asked the government to consider them.

The court was hearing a petition by NGO Manushi, which said that the court’s order and the MCD’s policy of banning rickshaws from the main arterial roads and Chandni Chowk area in Old Delhi was arbitrary and violated the fundamental rights of rickshaw pullers.

The court while reserving the order asked the Munipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD)counsel to submit the wriiten arguments within a week’s time.

The government had earlier suggested introduction of biometric badges to the cycle rickshaw pullers.

“Every rickshaw puller is to be issued a biometric badge. Traffic police will be provided with hand-held biometric badge readers to check the authenticity of the rickshaw puller,” Meera Bhatia, standing counsel of Delhi Police, said

The Delhi government has also suggested that the MCD consider adopting different colour codes for each city zone.

(Kanu Sarda can be contacted at kanu.s@ians.in)