In the past fortnight, the Supreme Court has issued directions, ruling that every truck from neighbouring states, which are passing through the National Capital Region (NCR) with cargo not meant for Delhi, will have to pay a `1,300 ‘entry charge’ at the first point of entry. The good news is that this is the first major step recognising the criticality of the condition of the environment in Delhi, taking note that the city’s air is now the most polluted in the world—clearly we seem to have a penchant for establishing the wrong kind of records! Surely, significant steps need to be taken to clean up the atmosphere in Delhi. Since the government in its entirety is not making a move, the apex court has stepped into the breach, firing the first shot.
However, many new questions arise. Why `1,300 per truck, why not `1,500 or `15,000? What is the calculation based on? Alongside Delhi, many other Indian cities are also keen to beat world records for atmospheric pollution, and are doing their utmost through total inaction to achieve this goal. Is the apex court going to examine the situation in each municipality or corporation? Are there not other things for the court to adjudicate on?
Note that in the implementation of the Delhi decision, sought by the apex court within two months, a number of entities are involved—the Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Police, the Delhi check-post authorities, and perhaps some others. None is prepared with a plan; indeed, none will accept responsibility for doing anything in this matter. Two weeks after the Supreme Court decision, there is no hint that any Delhi authority has taken the initiative to invite the others to prepare an action plan. Indeed, we have already heard from the contractor, who handles the octroi check-posts, that he is not equipped to deal with this volume of work, nor can he undertake it without additional payment. Who is to pay him, or ‘persuade’ him to work pro bono? Besides, has anyone calculated the impact on prices of daily commodities in Delhi, if a stiff impost is levied on trucks at the border? Who is to decide, and in what reliable manner, that the truck that enters Delhi borders is only on transit, and not with cargo meant for Delhi? Is such an exercise not readymade for Indian middlemen to fudge documentation, and for additional underhand greasing? In such matters, purely executive in nature, what is the wisdom of the judiciary to jump in with peremptory orders, without following through with the remaining sequential steps? Is it incumbent on the judiciary to jump in everywhere where there is utter failure by the executive? One thing can be predicted—there will be many operational problems in implementation. One already sees the finger-pointing and mutual recrimination among the Delhi agencies in this regard, with their desire firstly to do nothing, and then ensure that no blame should reach them.
But let us go further back. What is the responsibility of the environment ministry in this regard—one has not heard one word from them on this matter. What is the national policy? Is it to be left to the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation or the state government of Tripura to convene national meetings to address the approach to a large national problem. It is astonishing that the ministry directly charged with managing our environment is eerily silent in this regard—all it presumably wants is to be left alone, and to ‘negotiate’ climate change issues in Nairobi, Buenos Aires or Paris! What is the national policy to control emissions from motor vehicles in general, and trucks in particular? Has anyone articulated this? Delhi annually has an 0.5 per cent increase in road capacity, but its vehicle population increases by 7 per cent—a secondary schoolchild can calculate the damage that will take place to the city air, and traffic jam potential in the capital’s arteries. The situation in many other cities is not much different.
These are national policy issues in most well-managed countries. The taxation policy on new vehicles, entry tax (frequently very stiff) for access to inner city or specified areas, high annual registration fees—all these are standard procedures. Thus, in Singapore with much higher affluence than in India, a Honda car would cost `1 crore (10 times the Indian price), due to taxation—not meant to raise revenues, but control vehicle population. The collateral arrangement is that public transport, multi-modal transport and taxies are highly affordable and user-friendly. There is complete failure in India to think through these issues for a coherent approach—the modus operandi is to ignore all warning signals, wait for the inevitable crisis to hit us, and then hope that someone will take some action.
One can appreciate the anger, frustration, and need for action exhibited by the Supreme Court—this indeed is the sentiment of most thinking people in the country. That the court has to resort to staccato decision-making is an index of the failure by the executive; that the government of India has not reacted even to this extreme step, where the Supreme Court is forced to enter a purely executive arena, is the real tragedy of our governance system.
