Car-less in Delhi: A worrying thought

The new year will begin on a note of worry for people in Delhi. They will be able to take out their personal motor vehicle — car, scooter, motorbike — only on alternate days. A just-passed order of the AAP government says vehicles with registration plates ending in odd and even numbers cannot both be out on the same day. The Kejriwal government order comes in the wake of a harsh comment by the Delhi HC that living in the nation’s capital is like living in a gas chamber. Delhi has outpaced Beijing as the world’s most polluted city.

What’s more striking, however, is that the state government’s order comes after its repeated failure to do anything to curb noxious emissions from multiple quarters. To be fair, this is a wider failure. It is not enough to blame Mr Kejriwal. His predecessors didn’t fare much better in the environment sphere. Indeed, India as a whole has a poor report card. Delhi gets highlighted because it has more motor vehicles than all the other metros put together (reflecting its higher per family income) and severely polluting industries, many being run out of residential spaces.

In India, compliance is not a virtue, and so it has been with checking pollution. Processes die before the ink is dry on their announcement. There are too many vested interests to curb, and those charged with curbing them are either legislators or in executive positions. In short, the real malaise is corruption — and the Kejriwal regime has had little success dealing with it, though that is the promise with which AAP became AAP.

Why the Delhi government idea looks unsound — and we’d recommend other big cities don’t copy it in a rush — is that there is simply not enough alternative transport if half the personal vehicles — which total just under a crore — are kept off the road. Pollution will be scaled down, though it will be interesting to see by how much. But the city will stop in its tracks.

Cars and two-wheelers on alternate days — depending on licence numbers — have been tried in places like Beijing and Singapore. But Beijing’s environment cause has not been helped much. Actually, the specifics in each city are different. In Delhi, some kinds of industry could be shifted and trucks prevented from passing through Delhi. The quality of petrol and diesel have to be upgraded. All this is an enormous task, but determined steps can be taken gradually, including taking on motor manufacturers, if needed. On the other hand, it is easier to bully private citizens. But car-less in Delhi is a scary thought.