Delhi stays indoor; air quality in deep red

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By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, November 3: Life in Delhi national capital region has turned hazardous. Nostrils full of concentrated smoke, lung choking, voice heavy with soar throat are new normal in the national capital.

The air quality index slipped into the most sever category at 500, which stood for extremely dangerous air quality, which could impair lungs of healthy people. The worst fears of the people about November nightmare finally arrived as the farmers in Punjab burnt their residue crops with vengeance.

The Sub-Committee for invoking actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR & Adjoining Areas (CAQM) held a meeting on Thursday and called for the stringent measures to mitigate the harmful effects of the smog in the national capital. Vehicle rationing, schools shut for offline classes, restrictions on construction activities and so.

The governments at the Centre and the national capital seem to have abandoned people to their fate, blaming each other for the unmitigated air pollution. The Central ministers blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government for failing to dissuade the farmers from burning the crop residues on their farm fields. Farmers in Punjab on Thursday set the maximum number of farm field on fire in their bids to clear the lands for the sowing season.

The social media trended an old video of Kejriwal in which he claimed to have the chemical spray solution to turn the crop residues into compost. He is, however, busy in Gujarat Assembly elections. Last year also Punjab farmers had indulged in setting fire to their farm lands to prepare for the Winter crops. The AAP came to power in Punjab a few months ago, but Kejriwal couldn’t persuade his colleague Bhagwant Singh Mann to work on a solution to farm fires. The Centre has been stating that while Haryana has cut down the incidents of farm fires by over 30 per cent, there was no impact in Punjab at all.

With the government advising children and old to stay indoors, the Central and the city governments have been advised to shift to 50 per cent of the staff on the work from home mode.