Delhi Government Air Quality Winter Pollution Strategy

The Delhi government has done the right thing in framing a pollution control strategy at least five months before the city’s air quality assumes crisis proportions. It comprises most elements of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) that have so far guided the NCR’s approach to containing winter smog. But unlike in the past, when administrators would wait for the Air Quality Index (AQI) red alerts to impose restrictions, curbs on vehicles and construction activities will come into force from November 1 and continue for the next three to four months. Delhi government and private offices will operate with 50 per cent in-person staff attendance. This proactive approach would allow workplaces and business establishments to redesign work-flows, stagger employee attendance, invest in digital infrastructure and make transport arrangements before the pollution season begins. The plan addresses criticism that Delhi’s pollution control authorities spring into action only after the foul air precipitates a public health emergency.

The winter plan should, therefore, be part of a multi-pronged pollution control strategy. In recent years, experts have underlined that the national capital is part of a larger airshed with a chronic pollution problem. Delhi’s air quality is influenced not just by activities in the city and its neighbourhood, but the toxic smog that engulfs the city in winters is also fed by biomass burning and industrial and transport sector emissions in an area stretching from Punjab in the north to Bengal in the east. In fact, most Indian cities fail to meet the national ambient air quality standards. The capital’s decarbonisation plan should, therefore, be part of a larger project to ensure that people across the country breathe clean air. The Delhi government has taken the first step. Other states, too, need to get their act together — the Centre needs to guide and handhold them.