JUNK CARS, FEED LOBBIES

The vehicle scrapping regime unfolding across Delhi and the NCR is not an environmental policy. It is a case study in administrative arrogance, policy laziness, and predatory governance masquerading as green virtue

- Shivaji Sarkar

India has perfected a rare form of innovation: the ability to repeatedly convert economic assets into liabilities, wealth into waste, and citizens into offenderswithout ever fixing the original problem.

The vehicle scrapping regime unfolding across Delhi and the NCR is not an environmental policy. It is a case study in administrative arrogance, policy laziness, and predatory governance masquerading as green virtue.

Delhi is a mere test case, preceding an all-India car scrap policy. The NCR has approximately 40 million vehicles. Of the 4 crore cars over 3 crore would be non-Euro 5, and the so called "end of life," stipulated to be banished. Strangely enough the Supreme Court does not find fault in the junking of almost Rs 18 trillion worth of people's wealth - the usable cars, in a region with terrible commuting system.

The metro hardly connects the NCR except suburbs in a linear way. Majority of the people having fine cars but "legally infirm" are having trouble in earning their livelihood as their movement is barred by Delhi government, which is less than one-fourth of the NCR. No country in the world junked its way to prosperity. India, however, appears determined to try.

The latest phase targets what the state euphemistically calls "end-of-life" 10-yearold vehicles. In Delhi alone, 62 lakh largely roadworthy, low-emission cars were slated for scrappage in July 2025 to feed a Rs 30-lakh-crore industry-a scale that should alarm any serious economy. Only a poor country with distorted priorities discards working capital so casually.