Delhi’s November gas chamber looms; govt wakes up with jolt
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 29: The Delhi National Capital Region is now thickly carpeted with haze. The government has officially stated that the Delhi NCR would come under intense spell of sever category of poor air quality beginning Sunday for the next six days.
The people in the national capital region now have taken it as their fait accompli that November brings for them the gloom with the accompanying gas chamber. This has been only growing in strength for the past 15 years when Delhi NCR first woke up to the November mist disappearing for haze that became monstrous smog to inflict cascading health ailments over the years.
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) on Saturday held an emergency meeting to review the overall air quality parameters and noted that due to unfavourable meteorological conditions with slower wind speed and sudden spike in the farm fire incidents, it was considered necessary to implement Stage III of GRAP with immediate effect in the entire region.
“As per the dynamic model and weather/ meteorological forecast, the overall air quality over Delhi is likely to remain in Very Poor to Severe category on Saturday and Sunday. The air quality is likely to deteriorate and remain in Severe category from Monday for the subsequent six days; the air quality is likely to fluctuate between Severe to Very Poor category,” said CAQM in an official statement. It also added that the winds may be calm in the coming days and the wind direction is likely to change course frequently. Thus, there is a high likelihood of the pollutants getting trapped in the region and not getting dispersed effectively, added CAQM.
Consequently, the sub-committee has ordered the annual feature of banning construction activities, while also mandating the Delhi government to take measures to curb the vehicular activities. The Delhi Environment Ministry has also called an emergency meeting to chalk out the response, which could unveil rationing of cars, water sprinkling/ spraying and other cosmetic exercises to show the people that the elected government is working for them.
However, the official records confirm that the meeting of the sub-committee for the last fortnight had been warning of unabated farm fire in Punjab, which is the single most reason for smog in the Delhi NCR. Last year, Punjab had reported 20 times increase in the incidents of farm fires in November. This year is also setting out to be no different, with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party mandarins being busy in the Gujarat Assembly elections.
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