Forcing People To Turn Eco-friendly

                        Buying and running cars and two-wheelers is soon becoming a costly affair with a Planning Commission working group suggesting a green surcharge of Rs 2 on every litre of petrol. Increase in annual vehicle insurance value of all private vehicles,hike in parking charges and steep urban transport tax collected at the time of purchase of private vehicles are moves to force people use public trasports. A 'green surcharge' on petrol may seem like a good way of improving eco-friendly behavior, but it's actually not as good an idea as it sounds. For starters, the price of petrol in India already has a massive tax component and adding further to it amounts to over-burdening the consumer. Further, if the idea is to nudge people to use public transport and move them away from private vehicles, it is unlikely to work as things stand. The simple reason for assuming that is that most Indian cities have no public transport infrastructure worth the name. As the metro in Delhi has shown, creating world-class public transport will do more to move people away from private vehicles than trying to force them in that direction without any viable options.