POLLUTION AFFECTS ALL, REDRESS CAN’T BE LEFT TO PRIVATE OPTIONS

ALL it the Gurugram model of urban development. In this familiar pattern, the conurbation grows fast, government action on public goods lags, and citizens fend for themselves.

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If residents were once used to arranging their own power backup, security and even roads, the degraded common resource most metro dwellers are now trying to clean or avoid is the most plentiful of all—air. It is no longer only about masks and indoor purifiers. Portable purifiers and lotions claiming an ‘antipollution factor’ are flying off the shelves—never mind expert advice that these methods are unproven. Even hyperbaric chambers, meant to raise blood oxygen levels for medical purposes, are now marketed as antipollution services. None of these innovations make a dent in the public problem.