Author:
Publication: KolkataMusing.com
Date: June 28, 2008
URL: http://www.kolkatamusing.com/2008/06/our-lives-in-their-hands.html
Sometime back a co-passenger in the Metro
coming from Hyderabad was narrating his surprise when he found there were
no 3-wheeler autos at the filling stations.
His surprise was justified because after all
many city roads are clogged with them, which meant that there must be many
thousands that plied on the road every day.
I told him the reason, and he nodded saying
that he soon discovered that the autos fill their tanks from clandestine roadside
shops. Sooner thereafter he also found out that the fuel the autos used was
an admixture of petrol and some other fuel.
It takes no special brain to conclude that
the typical admixture is not a lab tested product. This likely means that
when the fuel burns during combustion when the autos run, it leaves behind
'residues' that are highly toxic and detrimental to health.
Today's TT reports that the green bench of
the Calcutta High Court has agreed to hear on July 18 the subject of auto
pollution as a separate case. This is in response to a plea by Subhas Dutta,
the noted environment activist.
The TT news informs that Calcutta's annual
average RPM (respirable particulate matter) count is about 105 micrograms
per cubic metre, 45 micrograms above the permissible limit of 60 micrograms.
Even the state government has admitted that air pollution kills at least 10,000
people in Calcutta every year.
According to activist Dutta, as per report
of the Central Pollution Control Board, 50 to 70 per cent pollution in any
of the metros across the country arises from auto emission. In Calcutta, the
pollution caused by autos is the worst in the world.
If these are true, you may think, then how
the hell do autos still run the way they do every single day. By creating
air pollution, are they not causing slow death to millions of people?
I'd say you're too naïve to think so,
because in many aspects Kolkata bears similarity with the despotic ways some
African countries are ruled where what matter are just the wills of ruling
warlords.
To support my argument let me quote from the
article 'Autos you ride fill CITU kitty' in June 8 issue of the Hindustan
Times' Kolkata Live.
An auto-rickshaw driver on the Ruby-Hiland
Park route along EM Bypass said: "It doesn't matter which political party
you support. If you want to ply on this route, you will have to pay the unions
a certain amount of money everyday. Otherwise, you will not be allowed to
operate on the route. The unions demand a hefty amount when you enter the
route. The union members will also take your vehicle when there is a political
meeting to transport their cadres or anytime when they need it. But, you will
not get any money for that."
Let me sum up. Though the rights and safekeeping
of life and property of the people of the country are guarded by the Constitution,
they are effortlessly flouted by a section of people who care for nothing
else but their own selfish unlawful ends.
These people have taken law into their hands
even as the law keepers look elsewhere.
This has to stop. But, will it?
