A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transport!!– paraphrased from Enrique Penalosa, former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia.
Lately, the HOT topic of discussion, over tea/coffee, across all ages, has been the new proposed rule that Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal is intending to introduce from 1st January 2016, in order to combat the growing air pollution in Delhi. A rule which has been prevalent in various other countries is being introduced as a New Year gift on trail basis.
As we all know, Delhi, which has been titled as ‘gas chamber’ by Delhi High Court, has been quite infamous for being rated as the most polluted city in India, being worse among 391 countries of South Asia. As a measure to control the air quality index of Delhi, Kejriwal has intended to apply the rule which had been introduced in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics and has been prevalent in Latin American cities for decades. The Rule of permitting vehicles with odd-numbered licence plates to ply on one day and even-numbered ones on the next. Not receiving much appreciation by the people, Kejriwal still intends to introduce the same for a trial period of 15 days.
I am not a Kejriwal fan, neither did I vote for him. But I certainly like this idea!
People are worried that Delhi’s public transport system is quite disorganized and inadequate to meet the growing population. Their worry is valid, but I feel that until and unless we try to stand up, we would not be able to start running!! Unless one strong step is taken to control such growing menace, it would only remain a dream to make Delhi pollution free and who knows, it could rather reach top charts in the world rating of air pollution!! And this move is very stringent and strong as we Delhites are quite used to moving in cars even for very short distances.
Researches show that city’s Metro network is used by 2.6 million commuters daily but during peak hours the 220 trains that run come up short, resulting in over-crowding and long waits; and although 3.5 million people commute by bus, the 4,500-strong fleet needs to be more than doubled to match demand. Delhi has a car population of around 2.8 million and according to a four-year-old census, a quarter of its workforce goes to work using private vehicles. In winter, as a widely quoted IIT Kanpur study has found, 60% of the causes of poor air quality in Delhi is on account of vehicular emission and secondary particulates; in summer, it is 25%. Besides, in both seasons, waste burning, construction and road dust add considerably to pollution levels, which are on most days (measured by the concentration of suspended particulate matter of different dimensions) much higher than permissible limits. (Source)
People have shown resentment saying that the reason for poor air quality of Delhi is not due to increased number of vehicles, but other factors such as thermal power plants, diesel, generators etc. Government has announced that as a measure to improve the growing menace, it would shut down coal ash-spewing thermal power plants, would crack down on the practice of burning garbage, and deploy powerful vacuum cleaners to clean the city of its dust.
Every small step is important and freeing air from pollution emitted from vehicles is need of the hour. Considering the practical problems, it has been proposed that this rule will not be applicable for emergency vehicles like PCR vans, ambulances and fire tenders, and on public transport vehicles like CNG-driven buses, auto-rickshaws and taxis. Women and two wheelers are likely to be kept out of applicability of this rule. The most fascinating part, this rule is equally applicable to vehicles used by ministers and bureaucrats of all ranks.
Apart from this, it is being proposed to not allow trucks to run across Delhi until 11pm. All vehicles will have to follow the standards of Euro VI 2017.
In order to ensure that citizens do not face problems, the Delhi government said it will double the fleet of buses during the 15-day trial period, the government has also asked the Delhi Metro to increase the frequency of trains, allow auto drivers to work for longer hours and has contacted the railways to streamline the ring railway services during this period. And there are many more such steps which the government intends to take during 2016 in order to ensure that people do not face difficulty in commuting.
People from critical tendencies have a say in every move. This time, they say that people would purchase two cars, one with odd number and the other with even. People belonging to low to middle income group, who can hardly afford one car, would be the ones who would suffer the most. But as a perturbed citizen, I’d like to ask why can’t we for a second think like responsible citizens and really act towards the problem of growing pollution. Why should we even think about an alternative of purchasing a new car with an alternate number? Why do we need to find ‘jugaad’ to this Rule? There could be many solutions rather than jugaad to this rule. All we need to do is certain amount of adjustment, by people of both, low as well as high income group.
Car pooling is definitely one such solution which the government is itself proposing. In fact, a student of class VIII studying in Amity School, Noida, has come up with a brilliant idea by developing a website called http://www.odd-even.com/. And believe it or not, this guy has nailed it!! He has just come up with a magic wand, which people would have been searching for ever since the government announced this Rule. This website would work on algorithms based on the age, gender, profession and timings of commuters to travel and hence, allow users to search for people of like profession, to pool in and commute.
There were few solutions in my mind, which I thought the government can apply to improve public transport and improve its usage. Government could think about introducing cabs (public cabs), which could also be pooled in by people, there should be increased shared autos, which would not only be convenient but also quite economical. Then, government should have tie ups with private cab providers and have shuttle services to metro stations, increasing connectivity to metro stations, which at few places isn’t that great.
Considering that most of youth today works in private companies, placed out of NCR Region, Government should encourage private companies to provide pick and drop facility to its employees either through cabs or buses. Government can even consider giving subsidy on purchase of cars/buses for providing such facility to employees. There should be more of chartered buses. Also, the concept of bicycle should be encouraged to the maximum. Again government could increase subsidy on purchase of bicycle so that people get encouraged to purchase and commute through bicycles.
As they say “where there is a will, there is a way”. All we need is to support the government in such a move which would not only prevent our city, but also our health. After all, we are the ones who keep complaining about increased traffic jams, increased problem of congestion, asthmatic diseases etc. Controlling pollution should be our prerogative and not someone else’s.
Hoping for a better Delhi!!
