'Flawed transport policy at fault'

Environmentalists RK Pachauri and Sunita Narain blame the government for failing to provide an efficient public transport system, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jan 11, 2008, 24:51:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Hours after Tata Motors boss Ratan Tata said his group's Rs 1 lakh car would not give "nightmares" to environmentalists RK Pachauri and Sunita Narain, the two green activists held separate press conferences to reiterate that the small car would spell doom for traffic and pollution management in the country.

The two, however, did not accuse Tata Motors of clogging the roads with cars and the air with pollutants. Instead, both blamed the government for failing to provide an efficient public transport system, which they said was forcing people to depend on private vehicles for transport.

With more than 1,000 vehicles being added to roads in cities like Delhi and Bangalore every day, Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment said the car would lead to increase in pollution levels and congestion.

"We are making people car-dependent rather than providing them with a sound and reliable public transport system," she said, accusing auto manufacturers of manipulating "weak" regulations on safety and emissions.

RK Pachauri, who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which won the last Nobel Peace Prize, blamed the government for its flawed automobile policy rather than car manufacturers for introducing a slew of small and big cars. Pachauri said the policy was leading to an increase in personal vehicles on the roads.

He said though he was not against the small car, he opposed excessive usage of cars in the absence of a reliable public transport system. "I would have been happier if Tata Motors would have introduced a good and a cheap bus for strengthening the public transport system."

He said the new Tata car may be Euro-IV compliant but will add to pollution levels in cities with an increase in traffic congestion. "The increase in waiting time at the traffic signals adds to air pollution levels."

Pachauri cited a study conducted by his organisation — Tata Energy and Research Institute — in Bangalore which shows an increase in idling time at signals leads to higher pollution levels.

Both Pachauri and Narain asked the government to levy higher taxes on cars as a disincentive for people and instead encourage auto manufacturers to spend more resources in finding public transport solutions.

The day marked a protest by Greenpeace India at Pragati Maidan — where the car was launched at the auto expo — seeking mandatory fuel efficiency norms for the industry. Greenpeace said increases in carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles was a major cause for greater green house gas emissions, leading to severe impact on climate change.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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