Think long term

The NGT's order on diesel vehicles is not well thought out

A fresh tussle between the Centre and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has arisen over the latter's latest order to deregister all diesel vehicles that are over 10 years old in Delhi. The heavy industries ministry has told the tribunal that there is no legal provision to deregister diesel vehicles that are less than 15 years old. Whatever shape the tussle may take in the coming days, the fact is that the implementation of the tribunal's order is bound to cause serious disruptions in people's lives. According to one report, it will result in as many as 70 per cent of the goods carriers and 90 per cent of the private chartered buses being taken off the roads. A large number of ambulances, too, will go out of service.

There is no doubt in anybody's mind that old vehicles pollute and need to be decommissioned. But that needs a proper ecosystem for scrapping. Unfortunately, there is none. Most of it is done manually, which is hazardous, and adds to environmental degradation. A well laid out policy for scrapping is a basic requirement before businesses invest in modern scrapping centres. Moreover, the NGT order assumes that only diesel vehicles pollute and that too only the ones older than 10 years. This may not be the case always as petrol vehicles also damage the environment. A more rational way to go about weeding out polluting vehicles would be to make all vehicles mandatorily undergo an annual roadworthiness check. Vehicles failing the test could be junked, irrespective of the type of fuel they use or their age. This is how a lot of countries handle the issue.

It is not clear how the NGT order will play out. For instance, are the owners required to sell their de-registered vehicles as scrap? What increased the uncertainty was that two days after its first order the NGT demanded that vehicles older than 15 years be deregistered first. Of course, the level of air pollution in Delhi is unacceptably high. However, vehicular pollution is just one of the contributory factors. In fact, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, vehicles account for just two per cent of the pollution in Indian cities. The larger blame lies with construction-related pollution and farm fires. Unfortunately, too much attention has been focused on cars, especially diesel cars. The odd-even scheme of the Delhi government, which could see its third edition this winter, too runs on the same premise - it does not apply on the large numbers of two-wheelers plying on Delhi's roads.

Tackling pollution requires a holistic solution, not a piecemeal one. In this regard, the role of strengthening public transportation networks is no less critical. The NGT decision also penalises those automobile makers that have invested large sums of money in diesel technology. These companies can justifiably argue that they have been discriminated against despite meeting the emission norms specified by the government. This uncertainty is avoidable especially at a time when the government is keen to improve the ease of doing business.