21st Century faux pas
Does public opinion count in India? Considering the alacrity with which the Union minister for environment and forests, Saifuddin Soz, first promised and then took out a white paper on pollution, one would be led to believe it does. This was done following media reports on the criticism made by the Centre for Science and Environment ( cse ), that the government has no composite action plan to combat air pollution.
On November 1, cse had announced at a public meeting that the number of deaths and illnesses due to declining urban air quality have increased dramatically in just three years, and, blamed the government for gross inaction and lack of a composite strategy for controlling the problem of air pollution.
On November 5, Saifuddin Soz, reacting to media reports on the cse meeting, denied charges that his ministry did not have a holistic perspective on the issue and made the dramatic announcement that the government was working on a white paper on pollution which would be made available to the public soon.
And so Soz unveiled the white paper on pollution in Delhi with an action plan to be implemented from December 2. Public opinion, after all, can spur the government to action. Ever since Soz came to hold the cabinet berth for environment and forests he got his officials busy drafting an action plan to control pollution in Delhi and set deadlines for each action proposed. It is another matter that he missed his deadline of finalising the draft action plan by August this year, as originally planned.
Pollution resulting from vehicular emissions tops the agenda of the 10-point action plan announced by Soz, followed by issues as diverse as water pollution, solid waste management, industrial pollution and noise pollution. According to the white paper, the relative contribution of industries and domestic sources in the air pollution load of Delhi has been steadily declining since 1970, but the contribution of automobile emissions has increased dramatically. The contribution of industries to the total pollution load, for instance, has gone down from 56 per cent in 1970-71 to 29 per cent in 1990-91, and the contribution of domestic sources has declined from 21 per cent to eight per cent during the same period. But the contribution of vehicles has increased from 21 per cent in 1970-71 to 64 per cent in 1990-91. Even more dire is the forecast that the share of vehicular emissions in the pollution load of Delhi is likely to increase to 72 per cent by the year 2000-01.
Justifiably, the agenda to control vehicular pollution should be given priority in Delhi. But the white paper