New Delhi: The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the National Capital turned 'severe' again on Wednesday with experts opining that the failure to curb this toxic air which has become a matter of concern for several years lyes on the failures of the policy makers and the government's ineffective actions.
Taking to ETV Bharat, Bhavreen Kandhari, co-founder of Warrior Moms and environment activist said "Our policymakers have been failing consistently to curb this level of toxic air and this has been happening for several years now. The need of the hour is systematic changes that can effectively deal with this toxic situation."
"We are so technology driven and even in this situation, the government is coming up with non-sensical purifiers in cars and buses. These are just ridiculous measures", said Kandhari.
On what measures should be taken to come up with a real-time solution, Kandhari replied that "Knowing your source of pollution is the first step. Every state, city or country has their own sources of pollution. So, while we are talking about the negative impacts of stubble burning but the local pollution is also a matter of serious concern. Coming up with ideas that we are planting 1 million new saplings but what about the trees that you've destroyed. Our policy makers need to be strong and the government should raise above the vote bank politics."
Similarly, as per a recent report published by the Centre for Science and Development, it said that stubble burning is not the only major factor behind Delhi's toxic air. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment, told ETV Bharat that "It's not just the stubble burning but the local pollution as well. One cannot deny that the bulk of this pollution is from the local source."
Asked on the ways to curb this, she replied that "there are already action plans made out for different sectors. What we really need is the stringent implementation with strong compliance strategy across all sectors in Delhi and for entire intra region." Amid this deteriorating situation, Delhi Government on Wednesday announced an early winter break in schools from November 9 to 18 amid severe air pollution levels in Delhi.
While the political leadership continued to engage in the blame game over this toxic air, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Punjab, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to ensure that crop residue burning and even questioned the efficacy of the odd- even scheme (in Delhi) aimed at curbing vehicular pollution, and referred to it as "all optics."
