Govt Lebensraum and land acquisition bills..

The current land bill amendment bill has the potential to hand back the momentum to the Congress as they mobilise their grassroots to take on the government. I think this is one battle that the NDA can ill afford with UP and Bihar elections around the corner.

On the other hand if the Governement were to bring a separate act for land acquissition for the specific purpose of defence and such Act were to supercede the land acquisition bill - any opposition politically will not find support at the grasssroots as practically there is no village in this country which does not have one of its members in any of the three armed forces.

The current battle of ordinances and agitation is all about power politics - i think its time this was changed to some simple chanakya neeti..

NGT, the law and acche din for conspiracy theorists

The National Green Tribunal, Delhi bench recently passed an order banning all diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years. the relevant para from the said order is listed below:

"Thus we hereby direct that all diesel vehicles (heavy or light) which are more than 10 years old, will not be permitted on the roads of NCR, Delhi. All the registering authorities in the state of Haryana, U.P. and NCT, Delhi would not register any diesel vehicle which is more than 10 years old and shall file the list of vehicles before the Tribunal and provide the same to the Police and other concerned authorities. Petrol vehicles which are more than 15 years old and diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old shall not be registered in the NCR, Delhi."

It seems they are doing a good job of protecting the environment or are they?

When you pass an order the implications of the said order has to be understood first - failure to do so can only give credence to conspiracy theorists that this order was passed to benefit the auto lobby. The following are the issues not dealt with by the Tribunal:

1. If they are really bothered about air pollution then they should have told the government to jump two generations of compliance regarding vehicular emission - ie when the technology exists for euro 6 the least a concerned tribunal could have done is order the movement of indian standards from current euro 3/4 to euro 6 - not doing this but forcing people with euro 3/4 to discard a car only adds to the conspiracy theory

2. Why limit this to delhi NCT only - is the rest of the country not worth being free from pollution

3. The consequence not factored in by the Tribunal - many people have bought cars in the knowledge that they have 15 years of use or in the case of 2nd hand cars "balance x number of years" - this has been cut short to nothing - for eg a 2nd hand benz was selling for 7 lacs before the order - after the order it is not finding buyers even at 50k!! Imagine what this price destruction will do to bank loan books where they have given loans for these vehicles? unlike the criminal cases dealt with in the 2G and coal scam wherein the financial implications of the court ordered cancellations was the only way to break the cosy relationship of crony capitalism - the NGT order seems to be the one which is a crime and the people are at the receiving end for no fault of theirs!!

If the Tribunal does not want the consspiracy theorists to gain currency the least they can do is to provide a 3 year sunset clause (as this will allow 99% of loans to be realised) and at the same time force earlier adoption of euro 6 emission norms which will make better sense.