On the occasion of world car free day, Himachal Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his Cabinet Ministers, BJP MLAs and senior officers rode bicycles from the Chief Minister's official residence to the Civil Secretariat, Sector 1 here on Wednesday.
The Civil Secretariat is nearly two km from the Chief Minister's official residence in Chandigarh. While Khattar came to office by bicycle, he went back home on an e-scooter to give a message of environmental protection to the public.
In the past also, the Chief Minister had been seen riding a bicycle to his office.
While talking to the mediapersons on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that he had decided to not use his official car for the entire day. I came to the office by bicycle, completed my work in the office till the afternoon and returned to my residence by e-scooter wearing a helmet. Even after the lunch break, I came to the office by e-scooter and participated in the cabinet meeting, he said.
The Chief Minister said that before 2000, the Environment Transport Association used to observe green transport week in the middle of June and fixed Tuesday as annual car free day. As many as 46 countries agreed to observe world car free day on September 22, 2000. It is being observed continuously since then. But now due to environmental awareness, the number of countries observing this day is increasing, he said.
Khattar said that the purpose of this day is to create awareness about environmental protection among the people, to make them aware about the harm caused to the environment by excessive use of motor vehicles and to encourage them to use public transport or cycle or even walking.
While calling upon the people of the state to protect the environment, he said that the environment is getting polluted due to the continual increase in the number of vehicles. People have considered vehicles as status symbols, due to which employees and officers use vehicles as the main mode of commuting even when they stay close to their offices, the Chief Minister said.
He called upon people to take a pledge to adopt a car-pooling system or to travel on foot or cycle to nearby places.
He further informed that Haryana Government is promoting to establish oxyvans in the state and for this, about 3 crore saplings are also being planted by the forest department. Students are being motivated towards plantation, he added.
The Chief Minister also informed that while taking steps to reduce pollution levels, till now plying of CNG buses was being encouraged in Gurugram, but now the emphasis will be laid on running e-buses and e-autos there too.
He also inaugurated an awareness exhibition on e-vehicles organized at the Civil Secretariat here. While taking a round of the exhibition, he inquired about the 'World Car-Free Day’ as well as charging stations set up by Haryana Government, various schemes to promote e-vehicles and schemes like subsidy, Oxyvan, CNG buses in Gurugram, vehicle-scrap policy etc.
Subsidy will be given for purchasing e-vehicles
Khattar said that in order to encourage more usage of e-vehicles in the state, the Haryana Government will give subsidy to the people for purchasing e-vehicles. Electric vehicle policy chalked out by the State Government will be launched soon, he said. The policy proposes to waive off road tax, registration fee, state toll tax and provide an incentive of upto at least Rs one lakh for new vehicles. The Chief Minister said that the government has also formulated a vehicle-scrap policy for the discontinuation of vehicles older than the prescribed period in the NCR region.