NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Wednesday wrote a letter to chief minister Atishi, expressing his concern over the city’s worsening air pollution and the lack of concrete action taken by the government.
In the letter, Saxena said that he has written numerous “pleading letters to chief ministers of neighbouring states and duly endorsed them to our own chief minister (Arvind Kejriwal), your predecessor in office,” but his requests have gone largely ignored.
In his letter, Saxena pointed out the grim state of Delhi’s air quality as the festive season approaches, stating that the city is once again witnessing “black air pollution, grey skies not due to clouds and that dreaded choking feeling.” He noted that the Air Quality Index (AQI) is already approaching 400, with hospitals and OPDs filling up with patients suffering from respiratory issues.
“We have yet again been branded as the most polluted city of the world, our residents – especially the poor, apart from getting their lives shortened because of deadly air pollution, are staring at loss of livelihood. There are like in the past no concrete answers being provided and no solutions being offered,” Saxena wrote, reflecting on his two-year tenure as LG of Delhi.
The LG outlined the major sources of pollution in the capital, citing dust, vehicular emissions, and solid waste burning as key contributors. “About 36% of the air pollution in the city is on account of dust… The dust caused by C&D waste is on account of the fact that it is not processed at municipal sites of MCD, earmarked for such purposes,” Saxena stated, adding that vehicular emissions account for 25%, solid waste burning for 8%, and biomass burning in neighbouring states for 26%.
He further argued that while Delhi has little control over pollution from neighbouring states, “the remaining 74% are well within our control and could have been addressed effectively at a minimum cost by undertaking simple steps, had the government intended to.”
The LG also criticised the lack of attention to basic measures, such as road repairs and dust control. “Regular repair of roads, end-to-end carpeting of pavements, planting small shrubs, forages and grass covers on open areas and central verges of the roads, porous tiled carpeting of pavements and footpaths, mechanical sweeping of roads accompanied by water wash and regular vacuum sweeping of major roads for road-dust would have a salutary impact,” he said.