Gujarat High Court directs centre to allocate CNG to Ahmedabad under APM

Ahmedabad, 25 July 2012

Gujarat High Court today directed the Centre to allocate CNG to Ahmedabad city at the same price as it supplies to Delhi and Mumbai under the Administered Price Mechanism (APM). The court order will give much-needed relief to thousands of natural gas users in Ahmedabad.

Division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala directed the Centre to immediately implement the order of this court refusing to give stay for the central government to approach the Supreme Court.

Assistant Solicitor General P S Chapaneri, representing the central government requested a stay on the court order to challenge it in the Supreme Court. However, the division bench has held that since quite a long time, the government is not allocating natural gas at APM, this order has to be implemented immediately.

The court has also directed the state government to make compulsory the use of natural gas as a fuel in every vehicle registered in the state. The court directed the state to pass necessary orders within two months and this policy should be implemented across the state within a year of this order.

The Compressed Natual Gas (CNG) is available in the city at Rs 53 per kg, while it is priced at Rs 38.35 per kg in Delhi.

The court gave this direction while hearing a petition of environmental NGO Dhanghdhra Prakrutik Mandal, which, in its petition has said that though as per the Bhurelal Committee report, pollution levels in Ahmedabad city were as high as that of Delhi and Mumbai, Centre was not providing natural gas to the city under the APM.

The petition further said, the price difference is due to the “discrimination of the Centre” towards Ahmedabad city, where pollution levels are high and the courts have made it mandatory for autos to use CNG.