Leading environment NGO rejects India's auto fuel policy

Tuesday, 07 October 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: A leading environment NGO, the Centre for Science and Environment, Monday dubbed India's new auto fuel policy, as "too little, too late". Petroleum Minister Ram Naik had earlier in the day announced at a press conference that the "national auto fuel policy does not recommend any particular fuel or technology for achieving the desired emission norms." Reacting to Naik's statement on the national auto fuel policy formulated by an expert group headed by R. A. Mashelkar, director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), CSE said, "The policy, which plays into the hands of polluters, will destroy the Supreme Court's initiative to protect public health." The policy, according to CSE, is so weak and uncaring about public health objectives that it virtually denies millions of urban Indians the right to clean air. While a majority of Indian cities are choking on very high levels of particulate pollution, the policy stipulates that "clean" fuel (meeting Euro II norms) that is currently being supplied to Delhi -- and has had little impact on its overall air quality -- will be made available to the rest of the country only by 2005. "People of the country have been given no option but to die a slow death, as nothing new is proposed for them," stated CSE. The NGO has pointed to the fact that implementation of the Supreme Court's order enforcing use of compressed natural gas (CNG), a green fuel, by public transport vehicles has led to considerable reduction in vehicular pollution. "It has clearly demonstrated the critical importance of technological leapfrogging in polluted Indian cities. "CNG vehicles meeting Euro IV norms in terms of particulate emissions have given the people of Delhi a tremendous advantage over what Mashelkar committee has recommended. "But a lot still remains to be done: the extremely high levels of pollution make a bolder roadmap and harsher measures absolutely imperative." While the national auto fuel policy has made adherence to Euro II norms mandatory by April 2005 and Euro III by 2011, CSE has decried the fact that people in several other polluted cities barring Delhi will have to wait longer to breathe cleaner air. "This comes at a time when increasing number of studies from different cities across the country clearly show that the rising pollution level in them is deteriorating public health," the CSE states.
Source: IANS
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