To even out the smoggy odds!
As I woke up last Saturday, the chilling temperature inside the house and the foggy view outside the bedroom window appeared to have all the inspiring ingredients of an ideal winter morning. Riding the waves of the Western Disturbances, the chill of the previous day’s snow-fall in the valleys of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir had arrived here soon and while cooling the airs to the season’s mood it also warmed the hearts of Delhi-ites as their spirits stood smogged down by the raging battle against air pollution. Yes, it was fog indeed though for the past few weeks we have been tried to be tricked by its substituting sinister sister- smog!
While on the world-stage, countries were negotiating a concerted approach to address the bigger problem of climate change in the man-made disaster of environmental pollution that looms large on the entire humanity, the whole of India was debating about the smog or the pollution hanging in the air that with its rise to dangerous proportions has been threatening to play havoc with our lives and bring the capital city to a grinding halt as there are plans to pull vehicles off the roads and close down schools.
Yet it is ironical that on the matters of such grave importance of public health and the very question of environmental disasters of our own creation, challenging the survival of the future generations of mankind and the very existence of a livable earth, governments have to be shaken out of slumber by environmentalists and world bodies and still they do not do enough even after prodding by courts. The same thing has happened in Delhi as the government in its knee-jerk reaction to the World Bank report condemning Delhi as the most polluted city of the world is contemplating some plans of uncertain measures only after getting a dressing down from the apex court.
The alarm bell rang only when quoting a WHO report on ambient pollution, the World Bank in its recently released report placed Delhi as the most air polluted city among 381 cities in developing countries under study and environmentalists took the government to task in courts. It is a grim reminder that while we have reached the pinnacle of the pollution problem for lack of any vision and proper long-term planning by successive governments and in letting the untreated effluents from industries, dust from unplanned construction activity and emission of toxic gases and particulate matter from vehicular pollution ruin our arable lands, water bodies and air space and pose serious challenges to our health and environment, any half-hearted efforts for corrective action in the past had to be extracted from the governments’ complacency through intervention of courts. It was the challenges of environmentalists like Mahesh Chandra Mehta, who has the professional benefit of being a practising lawyer at the Supreme Court of India that the government agreed to close down the polluting refineries at Mathura and tanneries at Agra to help save the Taj Mahal from crumbling under the impact of their pollutants. It was only thanks to him again that the government made it compulsory for buses in Delhi to be run on clean CNG fuel while it continued to benefit from excise duty and other taxes on the more polluting diesel and vehicles run by it. While in most of the countries diesel is priced the same if not expensive than petrol, in India it has been the other way round. Though it is more polluting, yet its lower price and better average in mileage has attracted the car owners while the truckers even add the still cheaper, subsidised kerosene oil to it and further aggravate the problem of pollution.
The decision to restrict entry of trucks by levying fees or fines and temporarily withhold registration of new vehicles run on diesel, and to restrict the number of vehicles on roads by balancing through even-odd halves of registration number plates are only temporary measures and are not sure to succeed. While the other measures like temporary shutting down of thermal power plants around the capital are being resisted and may also tell on the increased energy requirements of people in the wake of falling temperatures, the untested system of allowing only certain numbered vehicles to run on certain days has its own pitfalls. With the measure to be tried only from the New Year, many relaxations have already been thrown in and more would follow diluting any gains.
As the scheme has been tried in many parts of the world with mixed results, it is apprehended that people would equip them with additional vehicles of the alternate registration number and such cheap second-hand purchases of older vehicles may rather further compound the problem. Also, there are no reliable alternate options for commuters if they have to leave their vehicles at home. It is proposed to pump in 4,000 additional public transport buses and increase the timings of Metro service. Lakhs of people commute daily between Delhi and other places in the NCR, like Gurgaon. As many of the localities do not have connectivity with public transport buses and Metro trains, restrictions on private vehicles is going to pose serious challenge to them for their daily movement between places of stay and work. Taxis, auto rickshaws and rickshaws are bound to fleece the hapless commuters in such situations.
Confusion, congestion and chaos on the roads which is likely to be seen through infusion of additional buses — some to be resurrected from auto graveyards, and freewheeling of those old & rickety mini buses, two-wheelers, auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, e-rickshaws, rattling tempos which are notorious for carrying three-fold passengers than their built capacity, and other ingenious modes of public transport falling outside the purview of the evenodd policy, would perhaps prove rather counterproductive. But then as the Delhi Chief Minister himself is not sure about the success of this experiment and has publicly spoken that it may be withdrawn if does not work, people of Delhi and of the adjoining areas will continue to grope for some hope in the darkness of ever condensing smog for any workable solution that the government may finally find to save them from the pall of its gloom and sickening smear.