The three whammies that hit Delhi on Black Monday

The govt would do well to rein in the anti-Muslim rhetoric in order to prevent further radicalisation of members of our minority community

- RASHME SEHGAL

My mornings these days are steeped in nostalgia.

My thoughts go back to the wonderful wintry days of more than a decade ago when we Delhiites would wake up to radiant blue skies and bright sunshine. Winter meant basking in the afternoon sun, eating roasted peanuts and gossiping. Today, winter means being cloistered inside a cold room with the air purifier running 24X7. Our city has been converted into a gas chamber, The sheer density of the particulate matter creates a thick blanket of toxic smog that completely obscures the sunlight.

Delhiites are chewing on Minister of Environment Manjinder Singh Sirsa’s heartening statement that “ten years of polluted air cannot be cleaned in seven to eight months.” Well, that was the electoral promise the BJP had given us when we voted them into power. But that apart, Sirsa has to explain why air pollution data goes missing every time the AQI levels rise. On Wednesday, the AQI levels had crossed 400, putting pollution in the very severe category. The AQI monitors put up by the Central Pollution Control Board went blank for most of the day. The CPCB also needs to explain why data should be missing at such a critical time, especially as it is this information which holds the key to initiating precautionary measures by the public at large.

Once the air is classified as severe, the Graded Response Action Plan kicks in, This is a bit of a joke because construction and demolition activities are stopped for as long as the air is found to be in the severe category. As soon as the pollutants and dust are marginally reduced and the air goes back to being ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’, GRAP 3 is removed. Surely, our policymakers should be more worried about the citizens and question why air in the latter two categories is also not considered toxic?