Young or Old ?

Following report in Economic Times ( 25 Aug 2016 ) reads :

"  Make Scrapping of Old Vehicles Compulsory : FM "

NEW DELHI:

" The finance minister has asked me to make scrapping of old heavy vehicles mandatory instead of keeping it voluntary. The minister is also in favour of providing financial benefits to people for scrapping vehicles," road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told ET.

" The minister was not in favour of excise duty exemption but said he could make financial incentives part of his budget proposal. We will now rework the draft proposal as per his suggestions," Gadkari said.

Under the concept note submitted by the Transport Ministry ,vehicles bought before April 2005 or those below BS IV emission standards will be eligible for incentives if replaced.

Government estimates the programme may help replace 28 million vehicles with less polluting ones.

I believe , Shri Arun Jaitleyji  is right when he says :

#   It must not be VOLUNTARY / OPTIONAL to replace a POLLUTING VEHICLE

#   Hence , there must not be any mention of ELIGIBILITY ( as to who gets WHAT incentives and WHEN )

What he meant ( but failed to state explicitly ? ) was :

#   No matter what the " AGE " of a vehicle , it must be replaced if found in violation of Emission Control  Norms

#   If a vehicle is polluting the environment , it just does not matter that it is only 2 or 5 years old

#   On the other hand , let a 20 year old car run , if it meets the current emission level standards

I have no doubt that , if mandated , our  Vehicle Manufacturers  are capable of a TECHNOLOGICAL  INNOVATION consisting of a device that will ,

#    come pre-installed in all NEW vehicles , produced after 01 April 2017

#    be easy to install ( retrofit ) on all existing vehicles as well (  mandatory from June 2017  )

#    measure the actual emission of the vehicle ( PPM / Co2 / NOX etc ) , when running

#    transmit this data to the Servers of Central and State Transport Ministries / all RTOs ( with Vehicle Number )

#    flash a RED light on both the front and the rear fenders , if pollution levels are exceeded ( that will help

      nearest traffic police to pull aside the polluting vehicle and immobilize it till corrected )

#   If there are more than 6 DEFAULT INCIDENCES involving a given vehicle , within ONE MONTH , then RTO

     Server will automatically CANCEL the REGISTRATION of that vehicle ( no matter , how OLD / YOUNG ! )

     This data will be accessible to Traffic Police , all over the country , through a Mobile App ( SCRAPP ? )

#   Owners of such SCRAPP-ed vehicles will need to dispose off their vehicles at Govt Approved Scrap Dealers

#   Scrap Dealer will confirm the " Purchase " through Mobile App , giving vehicle number / purchase price

#   Central Transport Department will transfer the INCENTIVE AMOUNT ( DBT ) into the Jan Dhan A/c of owner

When we are targeting replacement of 28 million vehicles ( even over a 10 year period ) , it is best to eliminate human intervention from the entire process , to the extent possible

Involve humans and this scheme is bound to suffer ! 

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29  Aug  2016

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs