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Originally Posted by wbd8779 And AFAIK he never said that we should not buy BMW"s and Audis"s, this has just been hyped up by the so called "news channels" . Also i think that all the vehicles that i have seen in Delhi VIP convoys are very recent models of the ambassador , which atleast will confirm to BS3 norms, i fail to understand your point about pollution as an ambassador and a BMW both of which confirm to BS 3/4 will pollute the same. |
Conforming to the same standards does not mean that they pollute the same neither in theory nor in practical terms.
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Originally Posted by fi.robin Exactly. It is time we found a solution the subsidy saga. Subsidy on diesel is primarily meant for farming equipments and public transport and not for luxury cars. |
Farmers are a very important part of any economy. They obviously need help and should be given such. But it doex not make sense to subsudise Diesel for the farmers when everyone else gets the same for a much different course. Instead the government could give them per square meter used for crop and feeding ground for live stock.
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Originally Posted by sgiitk He should migrate to the bicycle or Cycle Rickshaw, and travel only by train, or (of course) bullock cart. |
I agree. Otherwise they should stop to make unecessary visit all over the world etc.
Also he could do something that the big cities get traffic moving. The lack of will to organise the traffic in a city like Mumbai alone cost the car users many crore of Ruppes every year in wasted fuel. For this half the farmers could be 'drowned@ in free Diesel and the corbon foot print dramatically reduced and the life quality in all the cities would rise.
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Originally Posted by akaush I wonder how many of these luxury cars are on roads - 0.1% and how much effect will it make on emissions by not giving subsidies to the people who drive these cars.
Being a minister he should be more critical about things that affect the masses. Although I am a big fan of some of his decisions on environment projects, this statement was not really needed. He should be more worried about things that affect the masses. |
Very few cars are in the luxury segment are on the roads. I am very environmentally oriented too. And I agree with you that it needs looking into the real issues rather than making such an immature comment, which I would have more likely expected to com from George W. Bush.
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Originally Posted by wbd8779 I Dont understand this clearly sir , pls go through the article posted by the thread starter , Jairam ramesh was speaking about diesel being used as the fuel for luxury/premium cars in this country , which is NOT the intended use as it is subsidized for Farming/transportation purposes. |
The minister was clearly out of order and obviously has lost the plot. I do understand the statement very well. To lower the carbon foot print you are not trying to clip the some minor (insignificant) contributors. You have to pull the roots out. Get a system into transport would be a good start and force manufacturers to higher standards, which do not end up in environmental time bombs like the Toyota Prius etc.
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Originally Posted by n.devdath Irrespective of subsidies, it is a well known fact that more and more cars are using diesel fuel across the world and hence most modern engines are diesel engines. BMW/Mercedes are not "pushing" their diesel cars into India because of its subsidy.
Moreover, do you think that a customer who pays 30-100 lac INR for a car will mind the INR 10.00 difference between petrol and diesel per liter?
I m surprised to see such short sighted and narrow minded statements coming from people like him. There are many more issues. Let me list a few:
How many of the BMTC/BEST/DTC buses are non polluting? Not on paper but in the real world.
How many cars that our Govt machinery uses are non polluting and do not steal/sell the diesel that is put into their tanks?
What about the insane amount fuel that is burnt to keep generators running at Govt offices for our babus and ministers at all times?
Wouldn't it be better if Delhi police used cheaper and more efficient hard top Boleros instead of their ageing, polluting Gypsys?
How many autos running across the country do not pollute?
There is all this and more which he can look into if he really wants to curb automotive fuel misuse and pollution levels. |
You hit the nail on the head. Looks like aminister needing to make a point to justify the importance for him being in office.
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Originally Posted by Exhaust_Note I do 100% agree that rules should be made to ensure that the diesel subsidy reaches only to the ones that are meant for. It is not the question of the percentage or number of private oil burners on the road. All diesel cars (indica included) should have a annual diesel subsidy recovery tax. How to calculate the tax is a question, it can be a combination of usage type (Tourist/ Commercial vs private) and cost of the car.
That said, the authorities should also ensure that their vehicles are non-polluting. Even without looking for them you see 10s and 100s of Light and Heavy commercial vehicles spewing smoke and pollutants, both govt. and private alike.
It is good to work against pollution but we should not be selective. |
But the problem is that someone actually has got to get the brains into gear, which politicians all over the world seem to have problems with.
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Originally Posted by Exhaust_Note No offence meant to any office, but thats what happens when you have not done enough homework before a speech.
But, I would rather take out the good and push it than splitting the statement apart a 100 times. |
Politicians very rarely do their homework. This is why most affairs in the world go from bad to worse.
Of course we should do something about pollution, but not on rediciluos statements based on ideas that won't have any impact whatsoever,
I am not a fan of electric vehicles nor hybrid vehicles as they have enough of problems to deal with with the current technologies available. But if the whole of India would be converted to energy efficient lighting (not Chinese bulbs!), how many electric trains could be run on it? A shocking amount.
What about energy efficient brown and white stuff?
What about encouraging manufacturers to produce energy efficient cars? Volkswagen produced a Lupo that they claimed it does retun at least 33kpl. When tested to the surprise of the testers it returned 42kpl in daily use! But it was a bit more expensive and all the environmentalist did not want to buy it!?!
There is many more areas to look in, which would require a bit of effort, but we humans are just too lazy to grab the bull by the horns.