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Centre for Science and Environment organised a rapid survey in the Capital recently to investigate the raging rumour amongst the autorickshaw drivers that CNG causes cancer. CSE wanted to check out if such rumour was really spreading, the extent to which it had spread and where was it coming from. A group of volunteers surveyed about 207 auto rickshaw drivers just in two days. The survey was conducted in various parts of Delhi – as widely spread as Hamdard Nagar, Batra Hospital, Civil Lines, Mall Road, New Delhi Railway Station, ITO, ISBT, Delhi University, GTB Nagar, Connaught Pace. |
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| What did we find? | ||
| 1. More than half of them have heard that CNG causes cancer. The survey revealed that more than 50 per cent of auto drivers had heard that CNG causes cancer. Not surprisingly all of them have heard about it from "some friend" or "another auto-driver". | ||
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| 2. Based on their driving experience they do not believe that CNG autos are more polluting. Despite the rumours the drivers confirm that they are quite happy driving a CNG auto because it emitted less smoke and caused less eye irritation than a petrol auto. Ninety nine per cent of the drivers believe that a CNG auto was cleaner than a petrol auto. | ||
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3. Who is responsible for the whisper campaign? Like all rumours even this cannot be traced to any one source. None of the drivers could authenticate this hearsay with a newspaper report or any organisation. But, quite a few of the drivers have referred to a case filed by Apollo hospital to stop usage of CNG because it causes cancer. CSE immediately got in touch with Apollo to find out if this was true. Apollo Hospital confirmed that there was no such case. Some of them have even heard that CNG related cancer deaths have occurred in some government hospitals. |
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| 4. Despite the rumours the auto drivers prefer CNG. This has helped to deflate the impact of the rumour campaign somewhat. The main reason for this is the cost of CNG, which is a major attraction as now they are making heavy profits. They also thought that CNG autos ran smoother than petrol autos and there was less knocking problems. As many as 73.43 per cent of them think that CNG is a better fuel than petrol. The rest who still favour petrol, do so because of the problems they face like non-availability of the gas, shortage of spare parts for the vehicle and less power and torque. But all of them are extremely happy about the fact that CNG is giving them a kilometerage of 35-40 km per kg as compared to petrol three-wheelers which give an average of 15 kms per litre. | ||
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4.
Want better government support. The survey shows that many three-wheelers owners
have taken loan from private firms as they believed that it would take very long for the
loan from Delhi Finance Corporation to come through. Only 9 out of 30 people who were
asked about it had taken the loan from DFC. These owners were paying interest rates of
13.5 per cent. Delhi government is supposed to give a rebate of a further four per cent
but this has obviously not come through as none of the three-wheeler drivers have been
able availed of this subsidy. Drivers who had taken loans from private agencies were
paying interest rates as high as 24 per cent. |
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5.
Unhappy about the repair and spare parts. Almost 100 per cent of the three-wheeler
drivers have complained that they are facing tremendous problems as far as repairing and
the service of the vehicles is concerned. According to drivers, there are only three
authorised service stations owned by Bajaj Auto in Delhi. Most drivers are complaining
that even simple repairs which would ordinarily take less than hour are taking almost one
week due to inadequate number of service stations. They are also complaining of
non-availability of spare parts and also that since Bajaj Auto is the only company
manufacturing CNG three-wheelers, they are charging very highly for replacement of spare
parts. |
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