Patna: The Bihar government is enforcing a complete ban on diesel-powered autos in the capital to check air pollution. The ban will come into effect from February 1 in Patna although all diesel-run autos will have go off the roads from across the state in a phased manner, as per the government’s announcement.
A meeting of the state cabinet held in November 2019 had decided to impose a total ban on diesel-powered autos in Patna and promote vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG) and batteries. “The decision to ban diesel-run autos has been taken in the interest of humanity. It will cut pollution and make the air clean but some vehicle unions are seeking for extension of deadline,” state transport secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal told the media.
The government is now caught in a peculiar situation as various transport unions are strongly protesting the government’s move and demanding for extension of deadline saying thousands of families would be left starving due to the government order. “The state government was expected to arrange availability of diesel conversion kits to the dealers and hassle-free transfer of financial incentives to retrofit autos with CNG kits. The government has failed on both fronts,” Bihar Auto Drivers Union’s general secretary Navin Mishra told the media on Monday.
All India Road Transport Workers Federation’s general secretary Rajkumar Jha said the retrofitting of conversion kits to let diesel autos run on CNG is a costly affair in Bihar. “The process costs around Rs27,000 in Patna while in Delhi and other cities the same costs only Rs5,000,” he said.
The union leaders further said the government was trying to enforce a ban on plying of diesel autos without arranging for adequate number of CNG refilling stations. Currently there are only eight CNG refilling stations in Patna to cater to some 5,000 autos.
According to reports, there are 185,000 diesel-run autos in Bihar. Of them, 32,000 have been in operation in Patna. “Suspension of autos due to COVID-19 has already broken the backbone of the auto drivers. The total ban on diesel autos will further leave thousands of families starving. The government should also think about our survival,” said an auto driver Ramesh Kumar.
Patna’s air quality has deteriorated recently. The Bihar State Pollution Control Board has described vehicular emission, domestic fuel burning, open waste burning, construction activities, industrial emission and road dust as the main causes of air pollution.
