The government was also criticized for withdrawing some steps ``under pressure from the political and transport lobbies.''

EPA chairman Bhure Lal, who is also secretary of the Central Vigilance Commission, said during a press conference: ``We are not happy (with the withdrawal of some steps). It has been done under political pressure and pressure from vehicle operators' unions and the transport lobby,''

The measures to contain increasing vehicular pollution, which were withdrawn by the city government include, a ban on alteration of vehicles -- by replacing petrol engines with diesel engines and a ban on registration of diesel vehicles as taxis.

The authority was set up in early 1998 to monitor how far the Union and Delhi governments had executed their action plans on pollution control. It noted with concern that Mahindra diesel jeeps had been registered in place of phatphattias, which had been eased out to check pollution.

Also, the government was yet to implement a proposed ban on the plying of heavy goods vehicles during the day. ``We have brought the matter to the apex court's notice,'' Lal said.

On the solid waste management front, the EPA took the Delhi government and civic authorities to task for failure to use scientific practices in waste disposal.

``The MCD compost plant at Okhla is not fully utilised, while the garbage-based power plant at Timarpur is lying unused. The arrangements to handle hospital wastes are unsatisfactory,'' said EPA member and executive director of Maruti Udyog Jagdish Khattar.

He said segregation of bio-medical waste from other waste was not being fully practised and disposal facilities for hazardous waste were yet to be provided.

Though the Supreme Court had ordered the construction of 15 Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) in Delhi, ``work on even one was yet to start, land allotment issues were to be sorted out and issues relating to contribution of share of industries remained to be settled.''

The EPCA chairman said the original idea was to have at least one such CETP for each of the 28 notified industrial areas. There were, however, 100,000 industries spread over different non-conforming areas in and around Delhi. Of them, about 168 of them were identified hazardous, but could not be moved out as most of them had threatened to go to court, he said.

Studies to identify hazardous waste and how they can be disposed of are underway. In fact, a site at Bawana in north Delhi is being considered for waste-dumping. But a special commission appointed to study these aspects is yet to submit its report.

Khattar also pointed out that sewers in the Capital were ``in an utter state of disrepair''. While the time limit has ``overrun'', for the 10 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) under construction, three newly commissioned STPs were not being utilised to full capacity, he said.

Several proposals are pending with the government or awaiting judgment in the Supreme Court. The plan to set up automated facilities for vehicle inspection and maintenance has been pending for months.

The authority has made numerous other suggestions. To improve air quality in Delhi, the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) has been asked to expedite the supply of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and increase its outlets from nine to 80 by March 2000. And land for 52 sites has been allotted.

The fleet of public transport buses is to be increased from 6,000 at present to 10,000 by March 2001, two fuel-testing laboratories are to be set up by June 1999, and the building of an inter-state bus terminal at entry points in north and south-west Delhi. The authority has also sought the replacement of all pre-1990 autorickshaws and taxis with new vehicles which run on clean fuel; a ban on all eight-year-old buses; except those running on CNG or other clean fuel; automated inspection and maintenance facilities for commercial vehicles and converting the city's bus fleet into CNG-run buses.

Among other suggestions are: more effective use of ring railways, construction of a by-pass to Delhi and fiscal measures to restrict expansion of private diesel-driven vehicles.

The other members of the authority are Kiran Dhingra, Delhi's transport commissioner-cum-secretary, D.K. Biswas, chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Anil Agarwal, director, Centre for Science and Environment.