New Delhi: The future of public transport is in "zero emission and clean buses" and not CNG, claimed newly-appointed Delhi Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) chairperson Jasmine Shah as officials said that tenders for the same were likely in December.
He was appointed chairperson of the DDC, an advisory body of the Delhi government, on Tuesday. The post, that has a cabinet rank, was lying vacant since April after Ashish Khetan resigned and quit the Aam Admi Party. The urban governance and policy expert, spoke to News18.com in an interview about the DDC and the challenges that lay before it.
Edited excerpts:
What exactly is DDC and what does it do?
It was set up soon after the Delhi government came into power in 2015 with the idea that the government, any government, doesn't have all the necessary tools to tackle all the 21st century policy challenges. Any policy issue that you take today is very complex, you need to bring a lot of experts together as well as consult communities people on an ongoing basis to form policy.
How does DDC work?
I am the vice chairperson of the institute and the CM is the chairperson, so eventually the priorities of the institute are very clearly going to be set by the government and the CM. It is neither the DDC nor the individual ministers who set the priorities.
What are the challenges ahead of you?
We want to democratise the process of making policies as well as implementing them. Participation of people and the civil society experts is very important. That participation doesn't happen organically. Governments tend to be quite inert. We need to open up governments.
Will DDC help tackle severe air pollution in Delhi?
First and foremost, air pollution is one of the most serious, serious problem that Delhi faces, one that the government is taking very seriously.
Earlier this year, the Delhi government came up with 26-point agenda called the green budget. That was the first time an interdepartmental action plan was created that spelled out how various departments of Delhi government (will work) together to tackle the problem of pollution...before this September, this was one of the better years for air pollution and that is also because a lot of these initiatives started showing result.
We start talking about air pollution from October onwards because we know that crop burning is a major culprit over here, and we really want a reprieve from air pollution. We need some solution for states surrounding Delhi. DDC will try and set up as ambitious an agenda so that Delhi government does all it can to stop air pollution.