Peoples power has prevailed. The Delhi government has backed down and put on hold its senseless ban on old vehicles, wrongly called ‘end-of-life’ vehicles or ELFs. It was a draconian edict, if ever there was one. CCTV cameras aimed at number plates were calibrated to spot diesel cars over 10 years old and petrol cars over 15 years. These cars were then denied fuel.
The order also allowed imposition of hefty fines and for impounding of vehicles. As the first cars began to be seized at petrol pumps, fear gripped the capital. The future of as many as 62 lakh vehicle owners was on the block. Mercedez Benz owners, who said they had bought their cars at Rs 30 lakh or more, were forced to sell them off at a pittance, often less than Rs 2 lakh.
Uproar followed. The Delhi BJP government had underestimated the pushback. It was so strong, there was no option but to relent.
The 1 July order of Delhi’s Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM) was meant to curb vehicular pollution in the national capital. CAQM also cited a string of court orders that had directed it to take action to reduce pollution in the city.
Western norms
In many ways this is an elitist response. It apes norms in more developed countries where routinely old vehicles are scrapped as people upgrade to better and more ‘loaded’ models of cars. However, income levels in these societies are far above those in India. Owning a car in Europe or the US is not a luxury, and roads and other infrastructure allows for efficient vehicular mobility.
In India, individual vehicle ownership is a luxury, and perhaps spurred on because of poor public transport. There are approximately 50 million cars and 260 million two-wheelers on the road today. This translates to roughly 34 cars and 185 two-wheelers per 1,000 people.Income levels being low, renewal of vehicles is not an easy option, with most vehicle owners continuing to pay off loans for 5 to 7 years.
To add to their woes, the life of a vehicle is considerably shortened, and car owners face huge maintenance bills, because of poor roads and infrastructure. It is therefore ironical the state, unable to provide good roads and an efficient public transport, is now calling on people to spend on buying new cars to reduce pollution!Or is all this at the behest of the car manufacturers who want to sell their products faster?
It's also evident that the Delhi government went for a soft target – vehicle owners – rather than take on other more serious polluters. These include the building industry spewing dust, power generation companies burning coal in Delhi’s vicinity and swathes of farm land burning stubble to prepare the ground for a new season of crops.
Stubble burning can contribute up to 38 percent of PM2.5 particles in peak winter season, while road dust and building construction during dry summer months adds about 40 percent to Delhi’s pollution levels, studies have found.
An ageist imposition
No one in Delhi or elsewhere is against stopping pollution. It’s killing us all. But the coercive order defied common sense. How is a vehicle’s age the sole determining factor of pollution? Malfunctioning engines and the volume of emission is dependent not only on the age of a vehicle but on the miles it has run, and the level of maintenance. The decades old British Austins and Fiat models in Mumbai,kept in spanking condition over generations by Parsi families, are legend. On the other hand, a badly-maintained two-year old car can be a terrible pollutant.
Delhi car owners therefore have rightly called out this ageist imposition. It is not ‘old vehicles’ but ‘polluting vehicles’ that is the problem. While it is true stricter norms and newer internal combustion engines are less polluting, people cannot be just bullied into abandoning their older, well-functioning cars, to buy new models.
Identifying polluting vehicles is not difficult. Basic emission testing gadgets can be installed at petrol pumps, which will identify polluting cars. These vehicles can then be then put through more stringent examination and phased out if they don’t meet the norms.
It is not clear where the CAQM got this age-related formula for defining a ‘polluting’ vehicle fit for scrapping? As it is the Motor Vehicles Act has a provision that cars of 15 years or more have to undergo a fitness test before they can be declared road worthy. There is also the provision of a mandatory pollution-under-control (PUC) certificate. If vehicles pass both these tests, what is the overriding logic of grounding vehicles solely on age?
There is no such provision in the US or Europe either. The average longevity of cars in the US is 13 years. In fact, cars up to 25 years old can be legally imported and allowed on roads as long as they are road worthy. The website ‘Junk Car Reaper’ says the average US car engine is currently built to run for 258,000 kilometers. In Europe, the average lifespan of a car is 18.1 years in Western and 28.4 years in East European countries.
It is hoped the pause in Delhi’s coercive move against old vehicles will now be used to find a more holistic solution to urban pollution. Perhaps, developing better public transport is also one way of reducing individual vehicle ownership.