E-Paper
Delhi’s anti-pollution steps miss the point
Local emissions, not stubble burning, are Delhi’s dominant pollution driver; a budget that had absorbed that finding would look different
For much of the last decade, Delhi has been defined by its air pollution crisis. In the last two years, the city recorded no “good” air day — not one with an AQI below 50. Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta spent her first winter in office against this backdrop — the first time since 2014 that the Centre and the Capital were under the same party. The conditions for a breakthrough, many Delhi residents thought, were finally in place. Instead, the Gupta government’s first winter looked less like a departure than a continuation. The previous AAP government, for instance, portrayed the smog tower, which a government-commissioned IIT study found functionally useless, as one of its signature interventions. The Gupta government deployed misting poles and anti-smog guns along prestige corridors: Visible, photogenic, but scientifically cosmetic. Worse, the administration was accused of managing AQI measurements.
On Tuesday, Gupta presented a budget she described as 21% “green” — ₹22,236 crore of a ₹1.03 lakh crore outlay going towards green causes. Some of it holds promise — the electric bus fleet and increased forestry spending should yield gains, if honoured. But the operational core signals no new thinking. The dedicated creceives ₹300 crore for mechanical sweepers, anti-smog guns, and water sprinklers — the same toolkit its predecessor reached for without measurable improvement. Local emissions, not stubble burning, are Delhi’s dominant pollution driver; a budget that had absorbed that finding would look different. Every administration must be given time to demonstrate the action it signalled. CM Gupta’s test is in another six months. It needs to be seen whether the money allocated finds its way to outcomes — or is absorbed, as it has been before, into the apparatus of managing appearances.
