knowing very well that brand new vehicles are failing onroad emission tests, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers ( siam ) conveniently turned a Nelson's eye towards the problem of manufacturing defects in vehicles. Instead it propagated good maintenance practices as a strategy to check harmful emissions from vehicles during a two-day long conference held in the capital from December 4-5, 2000.

siam wanted to issue a blueprint on an enhanced inspection and maintenance programme ( i & m ) for vehicles, which is a system to check emissions of onroad vehicles. But the seminar seemed to go little beyond the farcical pollution under control ( puc ) system already in place. Through the conference siam wanted to secure a more prominent role for itself. For this purpose it roped in government officials from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Experienced experts like Jane Armstrong, of the us Environment Protection Agency ( epa ) repeatedly espoused the serious flaws with the i & m programme. But, this criticism did not help in changing siam 's stand. siam also completely ignored the need to put the whole process of putting in place an emissions warranty system whereby manufacturers take responsibility for their products. Michael Walsh, an international automobile consultant and the former director of mobile source division of the us epa , also stressed the need for an emissions warranty at the seminar saying that, "Manufacturers have to take responsibility for compliance.' But the whole issue was blissfully evaded by siam. Outraged by this attitude, Centre for Science and Environment ( cse ), a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation severely criticised siam. They quoted a statement made by R K Malhotra, deputy general manager, Indian Oil Corporation (Research and Development) Centre, who said that they had tested brand new two-wheelers and found that catalytic converters were not working and emissions were much above the prescribed limits. This apprehension was confirmed in the conference when it was pointed out that in Mumbai brand new taxis are failing puc tests. What was emphasised by cse was the fact that even new vehicles pollute heavily.

"To address this problem other countries have started emission warranty and recall programme for the manufacturers,' says Anumita Roychowdhury, coordinator of Right to Clean Air Campaign, cse. In other words, the industry gives a warranty on the emissions that their vehicles will emit. The purpose of this programme is to reveal technical malfunctioning in the emission control systems. Properly maintained vehicles should fulfil the emission standards. If they still fail, then it shows that technical malfunctioning is responsible for the problem and manufacturers are then asked to recall the entire batch of that car model, repair them at their own costs and return them back to the consumers.

Added to this is the fact that a wide range of dream car models -- Ford Fiesta, Honda Civic 1500, Audi 100, and Opel Vectra