The Indian Socialism has always been defined by the ways of letting the rich subsidize in the name of the poor. Just to inform you that while the oil prices globally are touching the ceiling, even the Indian oil companies are bleeding internally due the debt of the foreign oil companies. Indian oil companies generally import 80 percent of their oil from overseas. Now it’s no big deal that the joke turned into the scariest nightmare as petrol has actually become costlier than beer. As a result of this massacre (that’s what I like to call it) the differential price between diesel and petrol has also grown drastically. Now people still want to buy a big personal and expensive car but they would like to prefer it only if that is available in a diesel variant. Yes, now the new reality that has turned out to be true is that now people are preferring diesel over petrol and the funniest part comes here when people say that they would even prefer a fuel guzzling SUV which will run on diesel rather than a petrol variant of a fuel efficient car.
According to some government reports, the use of diesel in personal vehicles has drastically increased by 15 percent than the current consumption in passenger car segment. The entire agriculture uses less than 12 percent of the country’s diesel bank. Even the oil companies say that the under recovery of diesel by now is close to Rs 8 per litre. But what does that mean? It means that now the private vehicles ravenously will consume more and more of diesel which will ensure the loss of oil companies. Also it’s not hidden from anyone that the environment is more prone to the pollution due to diesel than petrol. So, this usage of black oil will undoubtedly damage the environment and also will pose a health threat to human beings.
On the contrary to this, car manufacturers are standing tall by claiming that their new and improved vehicles or should we say the modern vehicle is clean and will produce very less pollution compared to the old diesel vehicles, but far from being true these tall claims are not even worth paying attention to. A private survey revealed that the current diesel vehicles emit seven times more particulates and three to five times more nitrogen oxides than petrol cars, on an average. The PM2.5, a tiny particle emitted by the diesel vehicles is one of the deadliest toxins produced by vehicles. This toxin is also a carcinogenic which can be easily associated with the significant increase in lung disease and asthma, heart damage and chronic bronchitis. On top these diseases, a long term exposure to these toxins can lead a healthy person towards the lung cancer. The contribution of nitrogen dioxide in the environment is phenomenal. Why? Because if the amount of nitrogen dioxide increased even slightly in the environment then it will contribute to the hazardous ozone layer which ultimately will affect our body, the toxins will directly go to our lungs, undoubtedly hurting and damaging them real bad. So in a way these fancy vehicles cost much more than those petrol ones. How? Didn’t I just tell you that these vehicle cost us our health, and I guess that is the most precious thing one wants to keep ‘always’?
I still remember the way Europe was trying to promote the diesel engines everywhere. First they promoted it in their own continent and later on in every other possible country. They said it is cheaper, better and why to pay more for the same. But who knew that later on after some years Europe will be in the worst possible condition. No doubt that Europe today, is paying a heavy cost of that. Everyone is aware about their struggling run to meet the air quality standards, besides the fact that they have invested a humongous amount of money in the cleanest of fuels which will decrease the sulphur level to near zero and also has fitted all kinds of anti pollution gizmo in every vehicle. Those gizmos include the particulate traps and the denox catalyst.
Diesel is also famous for its highest content of black carbon which is considered as the key contributor to the climate change. In the US, where the fuel price differentiation doesn’t exist, there obviously is no market for the diesel cars. But the question arises when we talk about the India. Why the Indian policy still contributes to these pollutants? There is no policy against it. I believe that this is one of the greatest loopholes in the Indian policy. Car manufacturers realised this loophole and hence offered every variant of their car which runs on a cheaper fuel. And the irony is that people actually fell for this fallacy.
Diesel was cheap because of its use in the transportation of essential commodities. While the buses used to consume a total of 12 percent of diesel, then trucks used to use 37 percent of diesel and this was the reason that the prices of diesel was low in India. But if people actually started using the diesel for public vehicles then undoubtedly the price of diesel will also increase. This cannot be acceptable anymore. The option only includes either to equate the prices of diesel and petrol or to ban the production of diesel personal vehicles. We don’t need any scams to tell us that the support of diesel is enough and also powerful but the loser are the bodies on this earth and the oil companies.
