Vehicle-free day mooted for officials

The Telegraph , Saturday, February 13, 2016
Correspondent : Piyush Kumar Tripathi
The environment and forest department has proposed to make government offices in Patna free of cars and bikes for a day every week to curb air pollution in the city.

Principal forest secretary Vivek Kumar Singh has recommended in an official proposal that officials and employees in all departments at the state secretariat and other government establishments can be asked to either cycle or walk to report for duty and use vehicles only in case of emergency on the designated day.

"Quite often people in government offices use official vehicles even for commuting very short distances," Singh told The Telegraph on Friday.

"That does not only lead to wastage of government resources but also contributes to air pollution. Thus, we have made a recommendation that government offices be made car-free one day every week. The staff and officials can opt for car-pooling practice in case of emergency."

Singh said that a letter in this regard had been sent to the secretaries/principal secretaries of all state government departments.

"Initially, we want to make car/bike-free day in government offices but later we would request private firms as well to implement this measure in their offices," he said. "The idea is to develop a culture of avoiding unnecessary use of vehicles without making it mandatory."

Singh has also suggested other measures for environment conservation, including that government print documents reduce use of paper.

Officials in the transport department claimed that various wings of the state and central governments in Patna were using around 15,000 vehicles. Of those, nearly 5,000 had been directly purchased by the government agencies, whereas the rest had been hired from private individuals and transport firms. The number does not include the vehicles used by Patna police.

The total number of vehicles in Patna is around 11.5 lakh. Though the number of government vehicles in the city is proportionately low, experts felt that a car-free day in government offices will help control air pollution.

"The car-free day in government offices move would definitely lead to a positive impact in curbing air pollution and also send a message to citizens," said Ashok Ghosh, professor-in-charge at the department of environment and water management at AN College.

"Vehicles in government offices are used more frequently than private vehicles. Thus, a curb on them would definitely cause a positive impact. I would also suggest that senior officers actively promote this practice by walking or cycling as it would send an impressive message."

In May 2014, a World Health Organisation survey declared Patna as the second most polluted city after national capital Delhi.

The average level of PM10 (fine particulate matter that invades the lungs and causes respiratory diseases and cancer) in Patna's air has been hovering around 350µg/m3, three-and-a-half times the permissible limit of 100µg/m3. The annual average of PM10 in the city in 2014-15 was more than three times the national limit.

Greenpeace, in its latest ranking report of 17 cities in India covered by the National Air Quality Index, has stated that pollution levels in cities including Patna and Muzaffarpur exceeded famously toxic levels in Beijing and other Chinese cities over April-November, 2015.

 
SOURCE : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160213/jsp/bihar/story_68963.jsp#.Vr7RjT197IU
 


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