All authorities, be the State or Center, in charge of pollution control in Delhi NCR are more interested in showing that they are serious about pollution and public health, but in reality, they are more interested in pleasing the powerful lobbies that can adversely impact the ‘Powers that Be’ politically and their revenue stream.
CAQM has immense powers but chooses to flex its muscles on hapless citizens through the four stages of GRAP. Everyone knows who the major contributors to pollution are, but the axe falls first on BS-3 cars, private diesel vehicles, residential construction, etc. till GRAP-3 all these stages, show no signs of lessening Pollution, while the parali burning, power plants, infra projects, etc, ‘THE REAL POLLUTERS’ continue to spew venom into the atmosphere.
Within a day of imposing GRAP-4, a visible sign of lessening AQI appears and a week on, the sky is blue again. Why is it that CAQM uses the Inverted Pyramid Approach, knowing fully well who the real culprits are?
Imagine a situation where a diabetic is constantly nagged and stopped from nibbling at potato chips or the odd samosa through the day, but in the evening, allowed to indulge in butter chicken, shahi paneer, and booze to boot…… Will the diabetics be controlled? But who will explain this simple fact to CAQM? Just a suggestion: NEXT TIME, ‘CAQM’ SHOULD TRY GRAP-4 FIRST and see the difference, instead of making life difficult for citizens.
As we go to the press, the parali season would be behind us. Colder temperatures due to the snow in the Himalayas shall bring the next round of pollution towards the end of December. The dust raised due to infra projects shall stick to the low suspended dew, giving way to smog; low visibility leading to highway pile-ups, canceled flights, etc. CAQM shall again try to showcase its seriousness by penalizing hapless citizens to show they are hard at work.
