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'Nobody doing anything': Sena UBT's Aaditya Thackeray on rising air pollution in Delhi
The average AQI over the last 24 hours stood at 370 as Delhi breathed air that fell under the ‘very poor’ category, as per CPCB.
As Delhi once again breathed ‘poor’ quality air, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday took a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the national capital. “All levels of government to one party has made governance crumble even further,” he said.
According to the central pollution control board (CPCB), the average AQI over the last 24 hours stood at 370 as Delhi breathed air that fell under the ‘very poor’ category.
“Nobody from the government at any level is talking or doing anything on it,” Thackeray alleged adding that since schools are running in hybrid mode and employees are compelled to take sick leaves, productivity is getting affected.
“All levels of Government- from Union Government, to State, to municipal corporations in Delhi belong to the BJP. Giving all levels of government to one party has made governance crumble even further,” Thackeray wrote on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Earlier this month, national spokesman for Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), Sanjay Singh had alleged the BJP-led Delhi government over its inability to minimise pollution levels in the national capital after Delhi police made several arrests at the AQI protest held at India Gate.
AAP's Saurabh Bharadwaj also recently shared a post on X which said Delhi's AQI is close to 1000, even though it has the Prime Minister, President, Supreme Court judges, army chiefs, AIIMS doctors and most of the other powerful people in India.
“How absolutely nuts is that,” the post read.
Delhi pollution
To tackle rising pollution levels, the commission for air quality management (CAQM) on Saturday said that some measures that are part of Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) will be taken under Grap 3.
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Announcing the changes, the CAQM cited the Supreme Court's observation of November 19 where it asked the Commission to take proactive actions based on “consultation with stakeholders for preventing further deterioration of air quality in Delhi-NCR.”
As Grap 3 remains imposed in Delhi, restricting non-essential construction, demolition, and certain vehicular categories, including vehicles below the Bharat Stage (BS)-IV (emission standards) category, residents have been advised to reduce outdoor activity, especially in the early morning and late evening hours.
According to CPCB, and AQI score between 0-50 is considered ‘Good’ and has minimal impact, 51-100 is ‘satisfactory’ and causes minor breathing discomfort to sensitive people, 100-200 is ‘moderate’ and causes breathing discomfort to people with diseases in their lungs, asthma or heart diseases, 201-300 is ‘poor’ and causes breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure, 301-400 is ‘very poor’ and causes respiratory illness on prolonged exposure, and 401-500 is ‘severe’ which affects healthy people and impacts those with existing diseases.
