NEW DELHI--You might not know it, but the next time you park your diesel vehicle at the shopping mall and answer that ringing phone, you would have done your bit to release a small portion of poison into Delhi’s air. Not once, but thrice. From the exhaust fumes of your car to the generator sets that keep the mall alive, and the mobile tower active.
So much so, that experts, officials and doctors have identified the staggering surge in consumption of diesel — its fumes contain cancer-causing chemicals and that killer dust called respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) — as one of the main reasons for the city’s air turning toxic.
At last count, Delhi had guzzled 11.32 lakh tonnes of diesel in 2013-14 alone, 39.6% more than the 8.11 lakh tonnes it consumed just four years ago. And at last count, its air was choked with 316 µg/m3 of RSPM, 16 times over the permissible limit, making it the world’s most polluted city.
“What was the use of bringing CNG and the Metro when you ignored diesel which was staring you in the face?” asked retired Justice Kuldip Singh, whose rulings on green issues in the Supreme Court set the stage for the judgement in 1998 on using compressed natural gas in all public transport in Delhi.
“Look at the number of vehicles, particularly SUVs, using diesel. About 55-60 per cent of the total number of vehicles sold now runs on diesel. You allowed the numbers to go absolutely haywire. Look at the number of generator sets shooting up. If there was any will in the government, we would not have seen such an obvious mistake in policy,” he added.
Indian Express
