Nothing to smile about!

hailed as a "bold' step to create the right environment for economic reforms, the Union Budget, presented by Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on February 28, totally ignores the real environment. Rather, it creates an atmosphere to pollute the environment in more ways than one.

At a time when there is growing pressure on the government from the civil society and the judiciary to clean up the cities and towns, the budget is all set to increase vehicular emissions. An eight per cent duty has been imposed on compressed natural gas (cng), a clean fuel that is going to be adopted for Delhi's public transport