Green fuel, yes, but some red there too

By Lalit K. Jha

NEW DELHI, DEC. 20. With the Capital's public transport system slowly switching over to environment-friendly CNG-run vehicles, a little known provision in the Motor Vehicles Act empowering owners and operators of such green fuel vehicles to decide their own fare structure is threatening to create a chaotic situation on the city roads.

If not amended by Parliament soon -- considering that all public transport buses, taxis and autorickshaws have to run on CNG from April 1 next under Supreme Court directives -- a situation could well emerge where owners of commercial CNG vehicles, mostly taxis and autorickshaws, would be free to dictate their own fares with virtually no Government control.

Under Section 67 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a State Government is empowered to issue directions both to the State Transport Authority and the Regional Transport Authority on ``fixing of fares and freight (including the maximum and minimum in respect thereof) for stage carriages, contract carriages and goods carriages''. However, the catch lies in the next paragraph of Section 67 inducted through an amendment in 1994: ``Provided that the fares and freights in respect of such stage carriages, contract carriages and goods carriages operated by battery, compressed natural gas or solar energy shall be fixed by the owner or operator''.

Fortunately for Delhiites, neither the private bus operators nor the taxi and auto owners are so far aware of this provision in the Act.

Says Delhi's Transport Minister, Mr. Parvez Hashmi: ``We are aware of this provision in the Act which can create confusion. We have recently written to the Union Government for requisite amendment to this Act. Meanwhile, adequate precautions would be taken to prevent such a situation emerging in the Capital.''

``As per this Act, we cannot have any control over the fare structure of the commercial CNG-run buses, taxis and autos,'' concedes a senior State Transport Department official. ``With the Government planning to depend more on private operators in future, it has become more urgent to amend this Act to prevent fleecing of commuters by unscrupulous operators.''

Officials say this particular provision was inducted as part of the Government's attempt to encourage use of alternative fuels. ``But with CNG now becoming the fuel of the day, this is the right time to remove this provision lest it create problems for the Government and the passengers.''

Officials concede that the CNG-run taxis and autos are not bound by the recent Delhi Government directive relating to increases in tariff structure. ``They are free to charge at will, but certainly we can impose sanctions under other provisions,'' officials assert.

At present the Capital has about 1,500 taxis and 6,500 autos running on CNG.

``We will look into the provisions of this Act,'' says Mr. Jaswant Singh Arora, president of the Federation of Transport Unions Congress, admitting that it could very well be exploited by commercial vehicles operators.

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