Delhi Returns Into Arms Of Toxic Haze While Netas Seek Votes
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Delhi Air Quality Worsens With Harvest Season
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 22: National and international travellers on Tuesday were welcomed with an air quality index (AQI) of 319 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. For more than a week, the skyline of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi is carpeted with haze.
After top officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Chief Ministers’ Secretariat in Delhi held a few meetings last month, the national capital now has slipped into the arms of pollution. The AQI of 300 and above could be seen at several of the locations in Delhi, including Mandir Marg which is stone’s throw from parliament.
“Hospitals are full with patients affected by either dengue or pollution in Delhi and the adjoining cities,” said Sudeep Ghosh Moulick, who moved to Ghaziabad last year from Kolkata.
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Experts explain that topography of Delhi and adjoining cities is such that polluted air gets trapped in conditions of low wind speed. Farmers in Haryana, Punjab, and elsewhere are also clearing their agricultural land for next crops.
Haryana leads with actions on the ground with arrests of almost 300 farmers for resorting to stubble burning. They have also been barred from access to the local Mandis where they sell farm produces.
Punjab too had showed intent to crackdown against stubble burning farmers. Yet, Punjab reported 1338 cases of farm burning till October 18.
“The number of cases of farm fire is lesser in Punjab with delay in harvest due to extended spell of rains being the principal reason. The next few days and weeks will reveal the outcome of the Punjab plan to curb farm fires,” said a senior official in the Punjab government.
Life in haze for three months, October-December, has almost been a fait accompli for over four crore people living in Delhi NCR for several years now. Only a few days ago, India celebrated ‘Swacchata abhiyan’, from September 19 (Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday) to October 2 (the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi).
Also Read: India To Be 3rd Largest Electricity Consumer By 2050: IEA Report
Ministries in the Central government came out with extensive publicity materials of cleanliness drive under their respective jurisdiction. On Sunday, a social media user in Noida put out a video of a large fire of garbage yard that spread smoke to cover the skyline for a few kms.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is making spirited outreach in different pockets of the national capital. His focus is roads full of potholes.
Pollution in the national capital has so far escaped the attention of Kejriwal. But his protégé Gopal Rai, the minister for environment, blamed the Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena for guiding Delhi again into the arms of thick smog and haze.
“Both the smog towers installed a few years ago are non-functional,” alleged Rai. The Kejriwal-led dispensation in Delhi passes blames for Delhi’s ills at the doorsteps of Saxena most often.
Saxena had been seen to be busier in appointments in MCD with political consequences than addressing alarming pollution levels. His appointments in the MCD invited the ire of the Supreme Court.
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