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| FINGER OF FURY: A section of the transport operators, after the meeting at Netaji Indoor stadium on Thursday evening, raised angry slogans against transport minister Subhas Chakraborty and demanded his resignation. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya) |
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Bhure Lal, a senior bureaucrat based in Delhi, was the chairperson of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, entrusted with the task of implementing its clean-air recommendations for Delhi by the Supreme Court.
The committee monitored the implementation, step by step, and kept the apex court updated all the way.
Team Bhure Lal faced roadblocks galore, but managed to make a big difference in “the most polluted city”.
From then on, Bhure Lal has also been responsible for monitoring the clean-air programme in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Solapur, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.
In Calcutta, a committee headed by the chief secretary had been entrusted with a similar task — to monitor the implementation of the court-directed clean-air programme.
The working — or rather the lack of it — of the State Vehicular Pollution Monitoring Committee sums up the city’s foul-fume fight.
All it has done in 12 months is convene two meetings. No meeting has been held this year and so no move has been made to implement the court’s directives.
With the clean-air crusade in Calcutta plunged in chaos, and a week to go for the court-set deadline of July 31, Metro spoke to Bhure Lal on Thursday evening.
WHAT I DID IN DELHI
First, we spotted the polluting sources and found:
• Old and polluting vehicles were enjoying a free run of the roads.
• There was no initiative from any stakeholder to reduce air pollution.
• The quality of fuel was poor.
• There were plenty of discarded vehicles.
• There was overloading on all commercial vehicles.
On the basis of our findings we recommended:
• Phase-out 15-year-old commercial vehicles.
• Restrict plying of goods vehicles during the day.
• Augment public transport. Eliminate leaded petrol. Replace all autos and taxis more than eight years old with new vehicles run on clean fuel.
• Entire city bus fleet to be converted to single-mode CNG.
• Increase number of CNG outlets.
Under the apex court’s direction, we implemented the recommendations by:
• Monitoring phase-out through regular meetings with all stakeholders.
• Ensuring periodic action-taken reports from the government.
• Reporting to the court any lapses on the part of the government machinery.
• Imposing fine of Rs 1,000 per day on buses flouting the phase-out deadline.
• Reporting all violators to court.
• Facilitating technological upgrade wherever needed.
• Ensuring proper inspection and maintenance of on-road vehicles.
WHAT MUST BE DONE IN CALCUTTA
• No compromise on the phase-out of vehicles more than 15 years old, through punitive action that hurts.
• Strict emission control for three-wheelers.
• Conversion to LPG to be speeded up.
• Fuel adulteration stopped at once with iron hand.
• Greater emphasis on public transport, including tramways.
• Proper traffic management.
• Pollution under-control centres to be properly run.
• Vehicles with visible smoke to be checked immediately, on the spot, and fined.
The clean-air crusader told Metro he would be “happy” to do his bit for Calcutta, if asked to do so.
