The National Green Tribunal's decision to ban diesel vehicles older than 10 years is flawed. Roads are clogged because of a massive population boom. This decision will benefit big corporates and suppress the aam aadmi
The aam aadmi has been hit again. The National Green Tribunal has come down heavily on the poor man to boost the sale of the automobile industry. Banning 10 or 15-year old cars, be it diesel or petrol, will hit the nascent economy of India. The poor are aspiring to be in the middle class with the acquisition of old vehicles, furniture, television, music system, computers and other gadgets.
This is an appropriate moment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and save the poor, the middle class people, who are the pivot of the Indian economy. The Modi Government should also study the political impact of such a weird decision.
The scrapping of 2.5 lakh vehicles in the capital city, 28 lakh in Uttar Pradesh and crores all over the country, if the order becomes applicable elsewhere, will make the people poorer by several thousand crore rupees. Most of the people do not have the capacity to pay for a replacement. The decision by the tribunal has pushed the country into an imminent chaos like situation.
All apart, instead of controlling the ever-increasing crime rate, should we utilise our poorly-manned police force for this innocuous taskIJ If diesel vehicles are a disadvantage, then why manufacture themIJ If the production of such cars cannot be banned, the vehicles can also not be forcefully sent off the road, when they are operational and within the safety standards.
Criminalising the possession of an old vehicle may suit those who are in league with car manufacturers. The BJP Government has to step in and act against the so-called tribunals. It seems, the ‘greens’ are also in league with the big corporates, who are now eyeing to capture the kabari industry, run by the poor man.
The apprehension seems real. The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project, headed by Nitin Gokarn, has been running a small pilot programme on vehicle scrapping. Mr Gokarn says, “There should be at least 1,000 centres, preferably on private-public partnerships, to dismantle the old vehicles.”
Corporatising the kabari industry can fetch profit to the big corporates, but in a country where the scrap trade is manned by the poor, corporatisation can cause a severe problem for the lakhs of poor who are dependent on it. The corporates know that kabari can be purchased almost for free through cartelised operations. The Government has to be cautious.
NS Mohan Ram, Chairman of the recycling sub-group, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers says, “While taking old vehicles off the road is a tough problem, another is how to dismantle them.”
Such quixotic rules make the policeman, the transport authorities and the law-enforcing agencies, extort all the more. The common man suffers, but the quixotic goals are never met, except in tokenism. The more stringent or strange a law, the more there is scope for corruption. If the poor and the emerging middle class are pushed back and suppressed, the dream of the aam aadmi of a prosperous country will never be fulfilled.
However, this is not happening for the first time. Earlier, over a decade back, plastic pack lobbies created a similar scare by raising the bogey of adulteration of loose mustard oil produced by small expellers — kachhi ghani. The result of this is that today, massive amounts of plastic bottles are strewn all over.
The middle class is slowly acquiring wealth. Neither the poor nor the middle class can understand the logic that their possession of a car or an old computer, alone, is responsible for the massive industrial pollution in this country. Yes, the ‘greens’ cannot put a check on the units that are polluting India’s rivers — not only Ganga and Yamuna but others too, on a large scale.
A factory has the licence to pollute a river. Since the 1980s, several thousands of crore rupees have been spent and all have gone down the drain. But river pollution has only increased. Most of the ‘green’ steps are just lip services. Stretches of the Ganga from Kanpur to Kolkata are not fit to take a dip in. Grotesque fences on bridges and culverts that break safety norms have not reduced the levels of pollution a bit.
The village roads of hinterland India, not long back, were known for their close-to-nature cleanliness. Today, they are littered with all kinds of discarded plastic — bags, toys, computer junk, cartons, packs etc. The ‘greens’ are not concerned about this as it is far away and is not seen. The ambient air of the factories and brick kilns is polluting the farms, and other orchards.
The poor people are made to feel guilty even though they have not committed any crime. Their only ‘crime’ is that they want a little comfort at an affordable price — second-hand cars or other goods. Their fault is that the Government does not care for them. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal aptly says, “It is not the Government’s responsibility to run buses.”
The ‘greens’ argument, that the old vehicles are polluting the air and need to be scrapped despite their good maintenance is untenable. Environmental consciousness is fine, but this country knows how the ‘greens’ have halted progress and have pushed it several decades back in terms of investment and new projects.
The argument given by these lobbies — that if old vehicles are not removed, the pressure on roads will become worse — is false. Roads are clogged because of a massive population boom and also due to the lack of dependable public transport system. If people do not have their own vehicle, they have no livelihood. The ‘greens’ instead of sustaining that, are virtually putting a death knell for them.
In India, there are only 16 passenger vehicles and five commercial vehicles per 1,000 people. Globally, these figures are substantially high. For instance, in Germany, more than half of the population owns a car. In Thailand, the ratio is 68 cars per 1,000 people. Terming the ban short-sighted, many auto manufacturers said that more stringent pollution checks would have been a better alternative.
The Indian automotive industry is already making vehicles conforming to latest rules in Europe. For instance, Maruti Suzuki makes all its cars based on the European Union’s End of life Vehicles directive. All its new cars meet the guidelines where almost 85 per cent of the vehicle and its components can be recycled and re-used after the vehicle is scrapped. The tribunal is flawed on many counts. The Government must come down heavily against such bodies and scrap their quixotic recommendations.