[sustran] Calcutta: Lawyer no-show derails smog plan

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

  Lawyer no-show derails smog plan

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7128720.stm>

*Attempts to cut pollution in the Indian city of Calcutta by banning old 
vehicles have failed after state lawyers did not appear in court.*

Judges dismissed the case as "invalid" after officials from West Bengal 
state's law department missed the crucial hearing.

The state government had earlier said it wanted to ban all vehicles made 
before 1990 in the fight against smog.

Air pollution in Calcutta is believed to be among the worst in the world.

*Nobody appeared*

In May 2005, the West Bengal government said that it wanted all buses, 
trucks and taxis manufactured before 1990 to be taken off the streets of 
Calcutta, because they were heavily polluting the city's air.

If the initiative had gone ahead, it would have meant that nearly 80% of 
the city's buses and trucks and nearly 50% of its taxis and 
auto-rickshaws would have been forced off the roads.

But the Bengal Bus Syndicate challenged the state government in the 
Calcutta High Court.

When the case came up for hearing on Wednesday before a division bench 
of the Calcutta High Court, nobody appeared for the government.

Justices Pratap Roy and Prasenjit Mondal had no option but to dismiss 
the case and declare the government notification invalid.

*'Half-hearted and callous'*

"The case has fallen through on technical grounds because there was no 
one to represent the government," said Swapan Dutta, a lawyer for the 
Bengal Bus Syndicate.

The office of the state's Advocate-General Balai Ray pleaded ignorance 
about the hearing.

"The transport department should inform us about the case date. Unless 
they do that, how can we send our lawyers?" an official in the 
advocate-general's office said.

The state government blamed the absence of a "junior lawyer" as the 
cause of the case falling through.

Environmentalist Subhas Dutta condemned the state government for not 
taking the issue of Calcutta's air pollution seriously enough. "They 
have been half-hearted and callous in pressing for the ban on old 
vehicles," he said.

"This is a killer but the government is doing nothing to check it."

About 70% of people in Calcutta suffer from respiratory disorders caused 
by air pollution, a recent study by a prominent cancer institute in 
India concluded.

Ailments include lung cancer, breathing difficulties and asthma, the 
Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) study said.

One of its key findings was a direct link between air pollution among 
the 18 million people of Calcutta and the high incidence of lung cancer.

Calcutta tops all Indian cities when it comes to lung cancer - at 18.4 
cases per 100,000 people - far ahead of Delhi at 13.34 cases per 100,000.

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Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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