Ram Naik, Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, is stooping to hit where it hurts most. Deny gas to owners of private CNG cars by raising the bogey of `no gas’ and threat them with price hike to shaken consumer confidence in the CNG market. He is of course silent on whether he is also depriving and penalising the industry claimants.

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 15, 2001:  It defies all logic why the petroleum ministry should be so determined to curtail CNG supply to the transport sector in Delhi to discourage people from using clean fuel. It is second time in a row that the ministry has threatened to stop supply of CNG to the private car owners under the pretext of gas shortage.  The Centre for Science and Environment is enraged to note that MoPNG is being so devious when Delhi’s entire transport sector requirement by March 2002 will only be 1.13 million cubic meter (MCMPD) -- a mere 3.38 per cent of the total gas available in the HBJ pipeline. The Hazira- Bijapur- Jagdishpur (HBJ) gas pipeline has a capacity of as much as 33.4 million cubic meters per day (MCMPD).  Delhi has been given an allocation of 3.08 MCUM. Of this the power sector has 2.60 MCMPD (most of this gas is to be used by the Pragati Power Station which has yet to see the light of the day). Other claimants have got 0.48 MCMPD (0.15 MCMPD for transport; 0.33 MCMPD for   cooking by households).

The private car owners who in true spirit of the Supreme Court order have taken the initiative to change over to clean at a considerable expense are being denied their basic right and are being actively discouraged from acting in the interest of public health and environment. Defeating the main objective of the Supreme Court order i.e. to promote use of clean fuels in the city, the Ministry is blatantly ignoring the visible impact of the Supreme Court order in controlling air pollution in Delhi so far.  Particularly now with the onset of winter when inversion condition is expected to aggravate air pollution problem in the capital, the ministry is all out to clamp down on one of the most effective strategies available in Delhi today to lower the levels of killer particles in Delhi’s air.

Only reducing by a small percentage the allocation for households, power plants and fertilizers till additional supply becomes available could increase the allocation for transport. This will not make any material difference to power plants and fertilizers as they are supplied gas only under the condition that they keep alternative fuels with them.   Gas allocation to all sectors can be subsequently augmented when the proposed plans for expanding the gas pipeline infrastructure is implemented by Gas Authority of India Ltd in a few years time.  

By its own admission the ministry is expanding the infrastructure for gas supply.  In advanced stages is the plan to increase the capacity of the HBJ pipeline network from 33.4 MCMPD to over 60 MCMPD of gas.  The first phase envisages 800 km. pipeline network linking Dahej LNG terminal with the HBJ system at

Vemar in Gujarat and a parallel 42 inch pipeline to the existing HBJ pipeline from Vemar upto Vijaipur to transport 30 MCMPD of additional gas to the states of northern India.  Investment of Rs.2,968 crores has already been planned for three pipelines.

It is deplorable that since the order of the Supreme Court dated July 28, 1998 several allocations of natural gas from the HBJ pipeline have been made to big business but augmenting allocation for Delhi’s transport sector has been conspicuously ignored. MoPNG has over the last two years increased allocation of gas to big businesses on demand even as it has been pretending that there is not enough gas to meet the miniscule demand of the transport sector in Delhi. The industry groups, which have been allocated natural gas after the Supreme Courts order of July 28, 1998, include among others Essar Oil Ltd, Mumbai, Reliance Refineries Indian Petrochemical Corporation Ltd. (IPCL), Dahej, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Kawas, Delhi Vidyut Board in 2001, Gujarat Ind. Power Company Ltd., (GIPCO), Vadodara, by Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL), Gujarat State Fertiliser Company Ltd. (GSFC), Vadodara. There is a note from Minister of State (Petroleum) to GAIL in 2000 asking it to work for city gas distribution in the city of Lucknow (Prime Minister’s constituency) and Bareilly (Union minister of state for petroleum’s constituency). On the basis gas was allocated to these places.

• CSE demands that the petroleum minister must stop misguiding and harassing public of Delhi and assure gas supply to meet the total transport demand in Delhi in the interest of public health

• Petroleum minister Ram Naik, should also drop his combat style of hitting at the consumer with repeated threats of price hike. This can only come from a government that is totally illiterate in the basics of fiscal management that are designed in other countries to promote clean fuels and technology by taxing the dirtier ones. World over cleaner fuels like CNG have lower prices compared to conventional fuels like diesel that have always attracted higher taxes.