Delhi's at work to fix pollution

Delhi’s air pollution crisis did not emerge overnight.

- SHEHZAD POONAWALLA

It is the cumulative result of years of policy inertia, piecemeal interventions, and a refusal to invest in long-term environmental governance by successive Delhi governments. The Rekha Gupta-led administration assumed office not merely in a polluted city but in a deeply compromised policy ecosystem.What the Congress governments failed to build and what the AAP regime actively dismantled through neglect has now become the starting point for the current government. Yet, despite a short tenure, the state government has introduced a series of structural, measurable and technology-driven reforms that are finally reorienting Delhi’s environmental governance from symbolic activism to serious, systemic action.

When the government took charge, it inherited not only toxic air but also a governance framework riddled with fragmentation. Under Congress and the AAP, environmental decisions were shaped more by press conferences than by policy outcomes. None of the essential building blocks of a pollution mitigation framework - enforcement capacity, inter-agency coordination, technological integration or urban infrastructure modernisation - were strengthened.

The Congress era left Delhi with outdated monitoring systems, unmanaged landfills, inadequate public transport expansion and unregulated construction activity - each contributing heavily to particulate matter load. Instead of correcting this, the Kejriwal government added layers of mismanagement. Despite repeatedly promising to end pollution “in 24 hours,’ it failed toupgrade dust control mechanisms, stalled solid waste biomining, neglected mechanical sweeping expansion and allowed landfill fires and stubble smoke to become seasonal features. Enforcement teams existed only on paper; agencies worked in silos and the city’s response to peak pollution events was reduced to ad-hoc announcements and unscientific populist measures like the Odd Even scheme!