Govt notification to advance BS4 triggers pollution debate

In an effort to curb vehicular pollution, the government has issued a draft notification making Bharat Standard 4 norms mandatory from April 2017. But all this has done is add fuel to an already raging disagreement between the government, auto industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM, and the National Green Tribunal, reports CNBC-TV18’s Shweta Kothari.

Vehicle manufacturers in India feel they are under attack. First, the National Green Tribunal came out with an order banning diesel vehicles which are over 10 years old from plying on roads in the Delhi-NRC region.

But even as that order lies in limbo with the government challenging it, the government itself has gone ahead with a draft notification calling for passenger vehicles to conform to the stricter BS4 emission standards within two years. Environmental experts argue that this notification is one-sided, as it makes no such demand for commercial vehicles.

Experts say this draft notification on BS4 standards will only add fuel to the fire that's already raging over the National Green Tribunal's order which has been stayed.

Remember, the stay came after the government quoted a study by IIT-Delhi, which said old vehicles only account for a negligible amount of air pollution. The Centre For Science & Environment (CSE) for instance is already up in arms over this argument.

The CSE, which is in any case unhappy with the original NGT order saying it lacks teeth, alleges that the government is blatantly batting for the automobile sector.

Says CSE’s Sunita Narain, “The NGT is taking knee jerk action because government refuses to act. Government is listening to three large automobile manufacturers. These are the large three diesel manufactures Eicher, Mahindra and Tata who do not have the capacity to make these vehicles and are dragging their feet irrespective of the fact that you and I are suffering from really poor emission.”

Needless to say, the auto industry refutes these allegations. It says it is one of the few sectors to actually move towards embracing green policies -- and that it is not the main agent for worsening air quality.

“We are overestimating the contribution of transport to PM2.5. Vehicles is the only sector that made major improvements,” says SIAM DG Vishnu Mathur. “Major developments have taken place in vehicle emission norm. We have to see why this has not bought change in air quality. We are only trying to address one source.”

Of course, India's green brigade is not convinced by any of these arguments. It is clamouring for a wider net of stronger rules that will really curb emissions.

So until more comprehensive studies on the causes, effects and deterrants to air pollution are carried out and used to formulate a more effective green policy, this debate is not likely to simmer down.