We have set up a toothless pollution control board
What has the Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) been doing about the increasing air pollution caused by vehicles in Indian cities?
There are a few things I would like to point out in this context. Firstly, we cannot better air quality without improving fuel quality. Secondly, we must improve the design of vehicles to make them more fuel-efficient and less polluting. We have set standards for two different periods, one for 1996 and another for 2000 ad , so that they get progressively stringent. The other steps that need to be taken are associated measures. For example, road conditions and traffic signalling systems have to be improved. God knows who is going to do all this.
We assume that to meet the 2000 ad standards, the automobile industry will abandon the age-old technology based on carburettors. One also hopes that the auto industry will discontinue the production of two-stroke engines. In any case, they are selling their products abroad, where they are meeting the standards required by those countries. So why is it that they cannot do it here?
Is it not because you are letting them get away with lax standards?
No. It is because we have provided a sheltered market for our industries in which consumers have no choice. The industry is under no pressure to change.
But why has the government not insisted on better cars?
Before liberalisation occurred, it was believed that the Indian industry should be shielded from international competition and quality was of little concern. It is only recently that such quality consciousness has emerged. Why, even today, both consumers and producers are not quality conscious unless something pinches them. This is why the government's ecomark is not gaining ground. There has to be pressure like the time when the Germans refused to buy Indian leather goods that contained azodyes and the leather industry immediately changed to cleaner dyes.
But why is such pressure not coming from the government?
The government alone cannot do it. You need public pressure.
But you are the people who set regulations.
We cannot set regulations without public support.
Why should these regulations require public encouragement when they need to be based purely on technical findings?