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Govt. reluctant to convert its fleet to CNG

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 8. While the Sheila Dikshit Government has been harping on its "Clean Delhi - Green Delhi" slogan asking Delhiites to adopt it in letter and in spirit, observers here point out that the Government's own track record on the matter is debatable. It has shown little inclination to implement the same norm for its own fleet of polluting vehicles. In fact, the Delhi Cabinet has been looking for new vehicles for the Chief Minister and her ministerial colleagues, conveniently forgetting its own "contribution" to the deteriorating environment in the Capital.

While asking people to adopt environment-friendly measures, the Government has been sitting on a report that had recommended changing the entire fleet of polluting Government vehicles to CNG. The report, prepared by the Principal Secretary (Planning), Rahul Khullar, has been gathering dust in the corridors of power with no action being taken to implement the recommendations that would not only help reduce pollution but also save valuable public money. Surprisingly, the report had been submitted three years ago and the Government has quietly put it in the cold storage.

On the other hand, the Delhi Cabinet is understood to be toying with the idea of purchasing new swanky vehicles for the new Council of Ministers, as the good old Ambassador is becoming a costly affair. The Ministers could soon change over to the Honda and Hyundai culture. In fact, the Delhi Assembly Speaker had last year acquired a Maruti Baleno. "The Ambassador is not fuel-efficient and also its long term utility is not much. The Ministers have also complained that the vehicle has to be sent to workshop regularly and is not able to take the load factor associated with the Ministers who are constantly on the move. Therefore, the Government is looking at a number of options keeping factors like economy and fuel efficiency in mind," the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit said.

In fact, the Government has been shying away from implementing the CNG norm for its own vehicles. At the time of submission of report by Mr. Khullar, the shortage of CNG was cited as one of the reasons. No effort has been made to retrieve the report and have it examined. This shows the Government in poor light and clearly indicates it does not practice what it preaches. In fact, many within the Government feel that if these present lot of Government vehicles were put through rigorous pollution tests, majority of them would fail to make it.

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