Whisper campaign on CNG
A CSE survey
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.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
Owners who have taken loans under the exchange scheme from DFC are paying around Rs
1,800 per month to repay their loan but owners who have got their vehicles financed from
private agencies are paying anything between Rs 4,500 and Rs 8,000.
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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