New Delhi: As the smog refused to abate and the air quality index (AQI) stood at 493 on Friday, Delhi officially hit the ‘severe plus’ category of air pollution.
The Supreme Court-constituted body — the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) — announced the emergency category of ‘severe plus’ according to its Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).
“The situation as it exists today is the worst that I have seen in my 30 years in Delhi. The situation today is a state of public health emergency. If you want to protect the people, we should be ordering partial evacuation of Delhi. Closing down schools and offices will not work. The situation is beyond anyone’s control now,” Delhi-based environmentalist Ashok Saxena told Gulf News.
A month ago, EPCA had announced that Delhi was in the “very poor” category. Prominent environmentalist and head of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, had said the effort was to stop Delhi reaching the emergency levels seen in 2016.
On Friday, Narain, a member of EPCA, said, “The situation is very alarming at this point of time and tough measures are required. We have been demanding drastic action to control the runaway air pollution problem. We must act because it is a serious public health question.”
Environmentalists believe there is a need for a long-term plan to reduce emissions.
“If the long-term measures already identified and suggested by experts and environmentalists, particularly EPCA, are not implemented, air quality cannot improve in Delhi and its adjoining areas,” Saxena added.
Jyoti Pande, president of Care for Air — an NGO fighting for clean air, says Delhi needs a ‘CEO for air’.
“We don’t need advisory bodies, we don’t need technical authorities. What we need is an enforcing authority. Someone has to be held accountable for the situation. Why can’t there be a CEO of air, like we had E. Sreedharan take charge of Delhi Metro and Nandan Nilekani perform the difficult task of implementing the Aadhaar scheme?” Pande told media.
