Losing after winning is the worst feeling possible. This is how I feel looking out of my window at a thick pall of black smog engulfing my city. It was this time of the year, exactly 15 years ago, when Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) began its right-to-clean-air campaign. The air in Delhi was so foul one could hardly breathe. That was a time when air pollution was an unknown curse. Not much was known about its nature and the toxicity of the air contaminants.
It was a proud moment and a powerful statement when Dhaka rolled out a bedecked iconic cycle rickshaw on the opening day of the World Cup cricket. This is perhaps the only capital city in our region that can boast of zero emission areas with majority walking or on cycle rickshaws. Yet cars, only 10 per cent of all wheeled trips, bring this city to a grinding halt daily – traffic jams are as bad as we see in the worst of times in Delhi. Jam-struck on Dhaka’s roads, I understood, what warped fuel pricing can do to our cities of South Asia, and, wondered why our finance minister has not figured that out yet?
Our Moms and Grannies will rebel. They have just about upgraded their kitchens from smoky chulhas to clean lpg burners.
Neurotoxic petrol additive MMT: Finally banished.
The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has done an independent assessment of the fuel adulteration problem in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT) and the National Capital Region (NCR) following a direction from the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) under the Supreme Court order dated November 22, 2001.