Open
Forum
New Delhi, 25 February 2014
Excise
Duties On Cars
SET BACK
TO MODEL CAMPAIGN
By Proloy
Bagchi
It’s a classic case of the left hand
of the Government not knowing what the right is up to. The last budget
proposals of the Minister of Finance affected a hefty cut on the excise duties
on cars in an effort to fuel demand as lately the sales had slackened and the
companies piled up inventories. True, in early 1990s largely riding on the
growth of the automobile industry the Indian economy picked up which eventually
made the country sixth largest producer of automobiles.
The automobile penetration in the
population has since increased appreciably (about 15 per thousand), though it
is nowhere near several industrialized countries. One, however, shudders to
imagine the conditions in the country if, given the state of our
infrastructure, it reached the level of US or Italy where the figures are more
than 400 per thousand. It is indeed an inopportune moment to encourage more
people to buy vehicles.
Cheaper cars would mean more cars on
the roads, more congestion, longer jams, higher oil import bills and more
carbon in the atmosphere (with 40% of vehicles being diesel-driven). Any amount
of widening of roads or creation of parking facilities is not going to improve
matters. World over this has been the experience since these are basically
short term measures. The newly-created spaces are soon filled up and the roads
start choking again. The Finance Ministry, therefore, seems to have caused a
huge setback to a sensible campaign of its sister Ministry of Urban Development,
which seeks to promote sustainable transport in the country.
The fact is that almost every city
in India
is being choked today with traffic. There has been an automobile revolution
since the economy was opened up and infestation of automobiles in Indian roads
has progressively increased to an alarming extent. While before 1991 only a few
thousand vehicles used to be manufactured, that number went up to 3.9 million
in 2011. Almost all major producers have descended on the country to establish
manufacturing facilities. Despite a claimed slow-down in off-take in the
succeeding years a few more lakh vehicles must have been added in 2012 and
2013.
People had to take recourse to
personal vehicles for want of adequate, decent and dependable public transport.
With generous help from banks the numbers of four and two wheelers saw an
exponential growth swamping all urban centres with motor vehicles. Traffic jams
have become commonplace in bigger towns and have also been occurring in even
smaller towns.
Always tardy in developing
infrastructure, the country was utterly unprepared to deal with this surge in
number vehicles. It has been the same all over, whether in a metro or II or III
tier cities or for that matter, even in a mofussil town. The existing roads
were unable to cope with the burgeoning traffic. Apart from want of
infrastructure or, in some cases, even lack of it the cultural factors have
also affected smooth movement of traffic.
Governance being weak in almost
every sphere, it has impacted traffic management as well. Added to perfunctory
traffic management is the lack of discipline and self-restraint of commuters –
whether driving or driven in plush Jaguar or riding on a lowly Vespa scooter.
Everyone wants to go ahead leaving every other person behind. The frenzied
traffic ends up in numerous accidents, often fatal. About 140,000 died in India in road
accidents
A most undesirable fall out of this
excessive growth in the number of vehicles and the resultant chaos on the
streets is deprivation of cyclists of their rights to use even a narrow slice
of the road that they used to hitherto feel comfortable in. There is always a
dread of somebody hitting one from behind – as happened not too long ago to the
well-known environmentalist Sunita Narain. Likewise, pedestrians have seemingly
been banished from the roads as coming out for even their constitutional is
virtually suicidal. Either the sidewalks are just not there or have been
appropriated by shopkeepers and casual purveyors of sundry goods forcing
walkers on to the roads that are fraught.
In many metros and other cities
informal organisations have cropped up to once again popularise bicycles. The
Delhi Metro has come up with a “rent-a-bike” system and it is proving popular.
Such an initiative was taken in Paris
too by its Mayor where a more sophisticated “public-bike initiative” has come
up that allows sharing of bikes provided by the government or its agencies. The
system, after a faltering start, caught on with the people and bicycles have
become a popular mode of transport. The initiative has now spread to numerous
other cities in Europe and America.
India, perhaps, is not yet
fully ready for such an initiative. The Government, however, seems to realise
the seriousness of the problem and, hence, Doordarshan has taken the initiative
to encourage people to walk, cycle or use public transport. Doordarshan, with
the support of Ministry of Urban Development, has launched this February a TV
series on “Sustainable Transport” anchored by the film actor and social
activist Rahul Bose. This is part of the Ministry’s campaign “Traffic? Ab bus karo” that has been initiated
with the objective of promoting sustainable transport in India. The name
has a pun – suggesting to commuters to use buses.
The TV series telecast on DD (News)
is in four episodes – the first builds up the case for sustainable transport,
the second is on cycling, the third on walking and the fourth is centred on the
use of public transport. Eminent environmentalist Sunita Narain is also among
the panellists. Through videos, the TV campaign shows
the example of Delhi
where pedestrians and cyclists have to risk their lives while crossing roads
and Kolkata where cycling has been banned from 174 major roads as they
allegedly caused traffic jams.
As a result of the ban poorer people in Kolkata were the worst hit. Stressing
that the need of the hour is to promote cycles and eco-friendly modes of
transport, one of the videos says that Kolkata seems to be moving in the
opposite direction by promoting polluting vehicles.
Nanded Township has come in
for some appreciation. Here the authorities took inspiration from Netherlands
where cycling became a national passion as a result of a social movement
against numerous child-deaths in road accidents in 1970s. The change in Nanded
occurred in 2005 when the roads were redesigned to provide separate lanes for
pedestrians, cyclists and motorists – a measure that has, perhaps, not been
adopted anywhere else in the country
The big question is
whether the Urban Ministry’s well-conceived campaign will suffer? Fingers need
to be crossed that it doesn’t suffer and that it will soldier on against this
and other odds. Currently the campaign is supposed to run for a month but, one
imagines, the episodes would be frequently repeated to bring home to the
viewers the virtues of using public transport, cycling and using one’s own legs.
---INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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