Gurugram Residents Work Artificial Rains to Dust off Govt Apathy
A Thick layer of smog engulfs Kartavya Path in New Delhi (Image credit The Raisina Hills)
DLF Primus Residents Battle Smog with Artificial Rains
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 8: A Gurugram society residents pumped ground waters to spray smog away from rooftops of 34th floors on Thursday. In a span of a few hours, they washed away dust in air and turned tree leaves green from grey.
Reports said that residents of DLF Primus Society in Sector 82 of Gurugram had haplessly been worried about alarming level of air quality index (AQI). The resident welfare association of the society decided to take action on their own, for the government paid least interest to the fast-dipping AQI.
The action of the Gurugram RWA will qualify exemplary in times of governments score chart boasting zeroes on key issues affecting life of the people. The AQI level around the Gurugram society was little below 200 before artificial rains was worked out.
Also Read: Mantri babus hold meetings as air quality turns toxic
Several parts of the national capital region for past two weeks are reporting AQI in excess of 300. On Friday morning, New Moti Bagh which houses who’s who of the Indian bureaucracy boasted an AQI of 427. The bungalows of the top babus are covered with thick green cover in New Moti Bagh.
Mandir Marg, a stone’s throw from India’s parliament, reported an AQI of 385 on Friday morning. The ITO, the central hub of the national capital and also the heart of the Indian media, reported an AQI of 349 on Friday.
As a ritual, the month of October carpets the skyline of the Delhi NCR with smog. Last year, over five crore people in the region had been breathless from October to January. The four-month ordeal of the people in the NCR fill the beds in hospitals with patients, from toddlers to senior citizens.
A study of the AIIMS in New Delhi ten years ago established linkages of the onset of arthritis in young population to air population. The people in Gurugram have voted at least on two occasions this year – Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls.
No political parties promised to bring relief to the people from the four-month-long smog. Within the vicinity of Gurugram, farmers set their farm land on fire to clear the residual stubble in quick time.
Delhi Assembly elections will be held in February next year. Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal takes his successor Atishi to a daily morning drill for on-the-spot inspections of the potholes on roads.
Also Read: Bihar’s Begusarai most polluted, India third worst in air quality
Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai held the ritual of holding an emergency meeting. On the outcome, Rai declared that the two anti-smog towers installed to combat smog had been non-functional for ages. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena has not been heard since the Supreme Court rapped on his knuckle for interfering in the politics of the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi).
While the governments almost stay in sleep mode on life-threatening toxic air, the Gurugram residents have showed the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. The message for the people indeed is to look after themselves and take steps appropriately.
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