Officials' absence at bad air meet highlights compliance challenge

The Capital’s fight against pollution seems set to be caught in the crossfire between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the office of the lieutenant governor (LG), with bureaucrats from 28 departments and agencies not heeding the environment minister Gopal Rai’s summons for an emergency review meeting on Monday.

- Paras Singh

 

The meeting was called a day after a blanket of haze brought back the gasping sense of the city’s helplessness in tackling the annual air quality crisis as the city’s air quality index (AQI) surpassed 300 for the first time this season and settled in the “very poor” band.

Rai, following the meeting attended by what he said were mostly junior officials, said none of the secretaries of the heads of departments, including the environment secretary, attended the meeting, while some officials, who asked not to be named, said there appeared to have been a communication gap.

A senior government officer, who asked not to be named, said that “many senior government officials were present at the CAQM (Commission for Air Quality Monitoring) meeting last week where a decision to invoke GRAP 2 was taken and there may have been a communication gap regarding Monday’s meeting”.