DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

Z THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATlQf^AL FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2001 z o o g co 1^ New Delhi Journal o ■D c o o In India’s Capital, a Prayer for the Belching Buses CT cn o' K3 ■D o O K3 3. By CELIA W. DUGGER 03 The stolid, resolutely well-fed own­ ■They cost half as much as buses that NEW DELHI, Sept. 27 - Here in ers of small bus fleets clustered un­ it,” said another disgusted rlcksnaw o o the nation’s capital, more than four run Oh compressed natural gas, so driver, Muhammad Salahuddtn. "Il o der a tent near the Supreme Court. private operators kept buying diesel c million people are bracing for a pos­ “Let Existing Vehicles Complete ones and Delhi let them do it. you keep producing children and 3 sible Supreme Court decision Friday Their Life,” said one plaintive ban­ At the same time, the central gov­ don't provide bread, this is what ha] i- CD O to banish from the roads thousands ner dangling behind them. ernment’s Ministry of Petroleum pens.” . of diesel buses they ride dally—bus­ The bus owners also gathered and Natural Gas failed to ensure de­ , in recent days, Unes have eased ies that belch foul exhaust into the Wednesday at a Sikh gurudwara, or livery of sufficient compressed natu­ stations developed a coupon system blighted air. place of worship, to beseech a higher ral gas to meet surging demand, not for rationing gas and the govern-! More than two years ago, the court power for aid. Their prayer was for only from buses, but from motorized ment forbade the sale of compressed — India’s main catalyst of environ­ help in preserving their businesses rlcitshaws and taxis, which the court natural gas to privately owned cars} mental reform — ordered authori­ — and for the right to continue oper­ had also ordered to switch to cleaner but the shortage remains. j ties to replace Delhi’s entire diesel ating their buses on diesel. fuels, The Supreme Court and the nation­ fleet with 10,900 buses that run on "When we had no other option, we “The government here is probably al and Delhi governments are now cleaner compressed natural gas. A knocked on the door of God,” said the most Incompetent in the world on playing the legal equivalent of a j rococo bureaucracy and a lackadai­ Harish Sabharwal, whose family environmental Issues,” said Anil game of chicken. The central and i sical political establishment simply owns 24 buses. Agarwal, an environmentalist who Delhi governments are begging for 1 have not done it. The deadline is Sun­ They were joined at the gurud­ serves on an authority set up to ad­ more time and permission to allow J day. wara by several politicians, inelud- vise the Supreme Court. “We make use of diesel. J Like other sprawling megalopo­ ihg Delhi’s chief minister, Sheila Dik- recommendations, but who will fol- Whatever the judges decide, the । lises in the developing world, Delhi, a shit, who might have been better off i low them?” case will undoubtedly live on long af­ State Of 13.7 million people that in­ praying for their own political sur­ 1 For months, the shortage of com­ ter the next crop of CNG buses are cludes the capital, is grappling with vival Already, people here blame pressed natural gas led to an explo­ ' obsolete. how to clean up its unhealthy atmos­ them for the failure to fulfill the sion of snaking lines of bus and rick­ M. C. Mehta, the small-time law­ phere. court’s July 1998 order. And public shaw drivers waitings, 16, even 12 The problem is acute not only here, yer who filed the public Interest law ■ ire will grow if millions of bus riders hours to fill their tanks. suit 16 years ago oh Delhi’s air polh - but in rapidly growing cities across cannot get to work and school next one recent afternoon, 206 rlck- the country. The World Health Or­ tlon, sat recently in hiS cramped, ra: week. J ty office, marveling at the extraord ganization estimates that as many as “You want to pass the buck,” Chief shaws waited in a single line that j 100,090 Indians die each year be­ stretched for half a mile. Some drlvr nary resistance of those in power to Justice A. S. Anand said sternly at a do what the court plainly told them cause of air pollution. hearing last week, scolding officials. ers snoozed. Some stared blankly. J Over the last decade, Delhi has Many fumed about the hardships J they must. “We are not going to run the govern­ “I never thought I would have to j made strides in reducing auto emis­ ment for you. You better discharge they have endured. sions through a switch to unleaded suffer for so many years,” he said. J your duties.” Because of long hours waiting for! gasoline, among other steps, and Environmentalists here had hoped "It is unending.” gas every day, Lal Bahadur, who J there are modest signs that Delhi’s Delhi’s transition to compressed nat­ rents a rickshaw for about $3 a day;' air is somewhat cleaner. But Delhi ural gas, or CNG, Would serve as a ceased to earn enough to support his still has among the highest levels of model for the World’s most polluted wife and daughter living in a far- I particulate pollution in the world, the cities, but instead it has turned into a away village. j worst kind for public health. cautionary tale of how bureaucratic Mukesh Kumar, who was married With the deadline looming for bus­ mulishness and political resistance at 11 in the tradition of his low caste es to change to compressed natural to change can foil the highest court in family, said he had been unable to I gaS and an eleventh hour court hear­ the land, at least for a time. send to his village for his wife to ’ ing scheduled for Friday, panicked For almost two years after the Su­ bus owners today engaged in that preme Court mandated the complete come live With him here and consum­ Gandhlan staple of protest: a hunger mate their marriage because he was phaseout of diesel buses, Delhi c6n- strike unto death. tihued licensing hew diesel buses. so broke, i “The Supreme Court told the gov{ ernmeh'ttodoltandtheydidn ’tdo ;