Tuesday, February 06, 2007

it seems that west bengal government is in talks with reliance to source CNG via pipeline so that CNG can be used for transportation thereby curbing air pollution.

laudable goal no doubt. of late the communist government is kiss-kissy with corporate conglomerates like tata's, reliance's, foriegn companies like salim group, etc. well, if it 'benefits' the state then there is nothing wrong in these interactions/engagement with industries.

but let me stop you right there. india's most successful CNG program is in delhi where cseindia with some upright officials from delhi government, pollution control board, etc transformed delhi's sick air into a somewhat decent air.

delhi's progress is very impressive. from india together profile of cse,
More than 1 lakh vehicles have been shifted to this clean fuel in five years. Yet another first is the switch-over by 10,000 buses to CNG, which has won the CSE global recognition, as Agarwal had served on the committee set up by the apex court.

but delhi's success was not achieved easily by cse and concerned officers. it took lot of time and effort. why won't the west bengal government first do a thorough study of its urban air pollution problem, then identify the potential things that can be done to clean up, chart a future course and then follow it up.

sourcing CNG is no doubt a good idea. but at the same time what is the point in allowing the 1 lakh monster car flooding all over india when it is for sure that the 1 lakh car will eat up literally all urban areas.

on one hand the west bengal (and other governments) want fancy 1 lakh car projects that will eat up all urban areas by congestion and pollution and on other hand they want CNG.

like anumita points out in above link, it seems GDP for the elite is the mantra, everything else, including health, environment, air, water, etc are non-entities. indeed we have a killer pact for development of india.
Our GDP is not adjusted to reflect the congestion and public health cost of motorisation which in other countries have shown to be significantly high. Billion cars for billion people is the new deal – a killer pact.

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