In no other country in the world do so many people employ so many drivers as they do in India. One in every 50 cars is now said to be chauffer-driven. One reason, of course, is low wages: on average, Rs 5,000 or less a month. | |
| The other reason is non-economic and perhaps the dominant one""people need drivers not to drive them around mainly but to park the car conveniently. This is borne out by the fact that many car-owners who employ drivers also have cell phones for their use now. |
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| That way, the driver can park even a mile away and be summoned when needed. Hard-headed realists will argue that this is an efficient solution to the problem of parking, now to be found all over the world. But the Supreme Court has a different view. |
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| It wants the Delhi government to ensure that there is enough parking space before it sanctions any new commercial or industrial project in the capital. It has also directed that the new parking policy be filed in court. |
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| Most people will say that this serves the government right because, as the senior lawyer appointed by the court to assist in the case said, the Delhi government had not treated the matter seriously. |
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| It had kept asking for adjournments. But, on the other hand, it had gone on granting permission for commercial projects, irrespective of their impact on the quality of living. |
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| Worse, recently it decided to go against the Master Plan for Delhi by amending it with a view to allowing industrial units to remain in the city, instead of moving out to Bawana, as required by the Master Plan. |
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| This is not the only case in which the court has taken a serious view of various governments' attitudes towards the quality of life in cities and towns. |
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| In another order it has issued notices to six states, asking them to improve the air quality of their cities. It has also accepted the recommendations of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) not to increase the existing strength of three-wheelers plying on city roads. |
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| And readers will recall that Delhi's air has been cleaned up only after the Supreme Court forced the Delhi government to make it mandatory for public buses and three-wheelers to use natural gas. |
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| It is of course a pity that the court feels obliged to take an interest in such mundane matters as a policy for parking vehicles. The problem is the manifest dereliction of duty by the executive, which is excessively preoccupied with its electoral fortunes. |
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| Anything that might cost the government votes is not done, never mind the larger public interest. The courts have had to step in to right the balance. |
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| While it is doubtless a matter for concern that courts step into administrative issues where there is no real interpretation of the law involved, it is also heartening that the institutional apparatus of the state works to push governments in the right direction. |
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