The government in India’s national capital Delhi decided to restrict unnecessary construction and vehicular movements and asked some schools to shift to hybrid mode following protests over the rising fear of a health emergency after the air quality dipped to hazardous levels in the city.

The measures, known as the third stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) were announced on Tuesday, November 11, after the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the agency responsible for pollution control, announced that the city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) had risen beyond 425, or into the “severe” category.

In India an AQI between 200 and 300 is considered “poor”, between 300 and 400 is “very poor”, and beyond 400 is “severe” for health.

For the World Health Organization (WHO), any AQI level above 50 is considered unhealthy.

The AQI remained above 400 on Wednesday as well and has been recording above 200 daily since mid-October.

Unofficial sources claim AQI levels in Delhi are even higher, with allegations emerging that the government is trying to manipulate and suppress the actual figures to avoid accountability.

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On Wednesday, according to CPCB, the PM 2.5 levels in Delhi’s air reached 438, which is considered dangerous for breathing. This was 30 times higher than the safe limit recognized by the WHO, which is 15 for a 24-hour period.

Relative to India’s national average, the present PM2.5 levels in Delhi are eight times higher.

The PM2.5 levels reflect the presence of fine particles in the air. Breathing in such air can clog the lungs, cause chronic respiratory diseases, permanent damage, and even cancer.

Pollution in Delhi is a permanent feature

Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world. It has retained the status of world’s most polluted city for years now. The pollution in the city is largely a result of the government’s failure to control unchecked vehicular and industrial emissions and construction-related dust, among other things.

Though air pollution is an all-year-long problem, its severity increases during the winter due to various reasons, including the large-scale lighting of firecrackers during the festive season, as well as weather conditions.

The weather conditions during the winter make the air thick and heavy, hampering its circulation. This raises the air toxicity to dangerous levels for over 30 million people living in Delhi and nearby areas, called the National Capital Region (NCR), causing large-scale lung and respiratory diseases in vast sections of the population.

The government, however, has attempted to place the blame solely on farmers in the nearby areas. It has claimed that the practice of stubble burning in neighboring states is the main reason for the pollution.

Farmers in the neighboring areas of Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh burn the remnants of the previous crops in their fields to prepare them for the next crop every year.

However, experts disagree and claim that the failure to limit the pollution from vehicular and industrial emissions and construction-related activities remain the primary reasons for the bad air quality in the city.

Protests over government inaction

Opposition groups have demanded accountability from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Delhi. Apart from condemning the manipulation and suppression of pollution-related data, they also demand better health facilities and compensation for working-class people.

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In a rare development, a large number of people gathered at Delhi’s India Gate on Saturday and Sunday to protest against the government’s failures to curb pollution or take effective measures to address public health concerns.

The protesters, mostly professionals and students, however, faced repression as police declared their gathering illegal and detained a large number of them.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, which joined the protests, demanded that the government take effective measures to curb the pollution and minimize its effect on the people by curbing the use of private vehicles and increasing public transport.

It also demanded compensation for workers who may lose jobs because of pollution. CPI (ML) Liberation also demanded adequate health care facilities across the city for all.

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