Think long term on Delhi pollution

The Supreme Court is right; CAQM must go beyond reactive measures to deal with NCR's toxic air

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The Supreme Court's direction to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to go back to the drawing board — this came along with a sharp rebuke from the Court on Wednesday — is both overdue and necessary.

For far too long, the response to air pollution in the national capital region has followed a tired script: Governments wait for the air to turn toxic, scramble to enforce piecemeal measures once pollution reaches “severe” levels, and then roll back restrictions the moment numbers improve. This reactive firefighting has been repeated for years, with little to show for it.

Delhi's air has been “very poor” or “severe” on all but two days this month —and even those brief reprieves came not from policy, but from strong winds.