Delhi pollution: Time to move ahead

Chandan Sharma

So. What is the plan for Delhi now? The city, that faced severe pollution crisis for several days or say over three weeks. Over 1.3 crore residents of Delhi have been denied fundamental right to live (and to breathe) amid breathlessness and hazardous smog for several days. Union government got a huge jolt as the parliamentarians discussed the issue in the both the houses of the parliament (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) continuously for three days to awake the government and people of the country from deep slumber and to take appropriate action to tackle the issue of climate change, pollution crisis and health emergency. It is another matter that the issue was sidelined amid some unprecedented political developments took place in Mumbai.

Even the Supreme Court of India has to intervene into matter and made sharpest comments on the administration and government on failure of tackling the crisis. And, Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar had to make a detailed statement in the parliament on the issue. But, despite all the issue yet to be resolved. Air Quality Index (AQI) in different parts of Delhi is still not going down to normal level or healthier level. Interesting fact is that other metropolitan cities like Mumbai or Bangalore or some others are not facing such a severe crisis despite having several industrial units in these cities or their adjoining areas. In some areas level of pm 2.5 is much below than 100 mark that indicate healthier AQI.

It must be noted climate change is probably the biggest challenge around the globe and so the pollution too. The solution has finally been worked out in form of ‘air purifier towers’, use of mask, odd-even and some other tougher measures. But, here we must understand that Delhi has hardly any big polluting industrial units. Even, coal based power generation units too are now converted into gas-based power plants. Certainly, a large amount of pollutants come from adjoining state as large number of industries are operated in the adjoining areas apart from stubble burning.

Long ago, the union minister Prakash Javadekar, talked about pollution sucker or a kind of air pollution treatment plants, mounted over chimneys or such polluting units. The minister is now a minister of heavy industry too. So it much easier for the government to take action in this regard and force such units to install such environmental friendly units. This will a great help to reduce air pollution. 

Administrative steps and better governance will certainly yield results if it is done with co-ordination with other NCR states. On the occasion of ‘world climate strike day’, when world’s large number of younger generation came on street to fight their own right to breathe in a cleaner and healthier air and environmentalists and top leaders gathered for better climate in Spain in next week it is certainly an important step to stop some countries (including US) to ignore the issue of pollution and climate emergency. 

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com)     ( yuvavani.com is a pvt. Initiative Not a part of AIR/any outlet/outfit/ppp )

    

Lithium-ion batteries soon to be matter of past!

Chandan Sharma

Is lithium-ion battery; that bagged Nobel award in 2019, going to be a matter of past? At least, new researches in this concern indicate so. Interesting fact is that the Indian policy makers believe that these batteries are not suitable for Indian requirements.

This has been indicated by NITI Aayog’s senior officials during a discussion on the issue in New Delhi. According to them “India needs new technology which suits Indian environment and requirements. It may be Aluminium batteries or hydrogen fuel or something else.”

According to him, though lithium ion batteries are working in e-vehicles but considering the requirement, weather and environment researchers should consider some new technology for the future.

Scientists and engineers, working in the field of the e-vehicles say that the lithium-ion batteries are not suitable option for public transport as it is very heavy and expensive. Moreover, recharging of these batteries is still a big issue for manufacturers of such vehicles.

It is notable that Delhi is already working on a plan to introduce hydrogen fuel for public transportation facilities, considering the volume of pollution on roads and number of daily passengers in the NCR areas.

It is notable that over 40 lakh vehicles are operating in the capital city on daily basis. The scheme like odd-even and others emergency measures unable to yield enough results to reduce pollution in the city.

It is an interesting fact that the metro train (DMRC) that has been mandated to provide high speed public transportation system, is now working extensively on a plan to ply e-rickshaws to ferry its passengers to their homes. This is certainly a move to distract its main task to provide passengers a comfortable high speed public transportation system, despite the fact that the move is intended to enhance revenue of the company. The company is already making huge money from the outdoor advertising (mostly of Kejriwal government); snatching bread and butter of dying print media and online and electronic media. Needless to say that DAVP plays an important role in this concern by authorizing these government ventures to convert into advertising ventures.

But it is a matter of fact that metro is least polluting public transport system. It will be better if it remains a public transport system than the advertising kiosks.

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com; A pvt. initiative not part of AIR or any ppp)

AIR POLLUTION: DELHI NEEDS PERMANENT SOLUTION

Chandan Sharma

As an unprecedented pollution crisis engulfed the National Capital Delhi, people started questioning that why the capital city has been chocking again and again despite several warnings and preventive measures. The situation is so grim that a health emergency declared in the city and several emergency measures took place to reduce the impact of air pollution in the city.

Although, much has been debated on the national and local media and even, Supreme Court had to take suo moto cognizance on the matter and expressed anguish on the issue on Wednesday. The apex court’s order is an eye-opener for top brass of the various adjoining states and Delhi. It not only rebuked top officials of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana for their failure to curb the pollution but also gave an action plan to execute within a given time frame of seven days so that an emphatic control could be seen on pollution.

Here it must be noted that Delhi’s people are still facing the burnt of odd-even scheme as half of the population are unable to use their cars due to strict rationing of the vehicles on the road and hefty fines on violation. According to an estimate about twenty lakh vehicles have been staying away during the period of implementation of odd-even scheme. Certainly, this provides some relief to the residents of Delhi but the question remains that why the city faced severe pollution on Sunday and Saturday as there is not much crowd on the road due to weekend holidays. Interestingly, the apex court has also raised serious questions on the logic of implementation of odd-even scheme and asked that why people were dying due to pollution and related ailments.

This must be noted that although the impact of such kind of severe pollution has not been recorded or researched in Delhi as yet. But the condition can be understood by the fact that the government distributed about five million masks among school children and that was 24-hours ahead of the distribution schedule (1^st November). A health emergency declared in the capital and if go by the data the local health centres and hospitals witnessed 30-40 percent spike in the pollution related ailments among the patients.

According to a UN report, although the impact of the pollutants cannot be seen immediately but it is a silent killer and it can cause even cancer of lung and respiratory system in the future. According to world body, although it reflects the effect of climate change but there are several immediate impact on human body and it can cause irritation in eyes, breathlessness, increase in the intensity of Asthma and other heart related problems and many others.

Actually, the problem is not just poisonous gases like Carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxide, Sulphur or other gases but the unprecedented increase in micro pollutant particles like PM2.5 or PM 10 in the atmosphere. These pollutants does not only affect our lungs or respiratory systems permanently but also create a haze or smog in the atmosphere and city reduced to a gas chamber. This year the AQI of the city based on PM 2.5 crossed even 1000 marks in some of the areas of Delhi. 

Although, intermittent drizzling helped the city to a great extent and emergency measures too helped a lot. But the city yet to recover from the nightmare of pollution completely. And, city needs a permanent solution in this concern so that the national capital does not choke again. 

(yuvavani.com is an independent pvt. initiative & it does not belong to AIR or any outlet/outfit/ppp)

(Chandan Sharma is founder of Yuvavani.com)   

Killer storm back again

PM in poll mode again; targets rural community, reveals plans to determine MSP

 By CTW

It may seem like an exaggeration but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the poll mode, again. In his 42^nd episode of his ‘Mann ki baat’ the PM addressed the nation as usual but his main target audience were rural and farming community this time. Addressing the nation he has not only addressed the farming community, the largest community of the country but also revealed the prospective plan to decide the ‘Minimum Support Price’ for agricultural produces. This was probably first time that the PM has openly spoken about the exact idea of MSP. He also spoke about various agriculture-related issues at length during his address.

“It has been decided that the MSP of notified crops will be fixed at least one and a half times of their cost. If I may elaborate on this, MSP will include labour  cost of other workers employed, expenses incurred on own animals and cost of animals and machinery taken on rent, cost of seeds, cost of each type of fertilizer used, irrigation cost, land revenue paid to the State Government, interest paid on working capital, ground rent in case of leased land and not only this but also the cost of labour of the farmer himself or any other person of his family who contributes his or her labour in agricultural work will also be added to the cost of production. Moreover, an extensive exercise on agricultural reforms is being undertaken across the country in order to ensure that our farmers get a fair price for their crop”, the PM said.

This was the first radio address by the PM after the decisive poll results of Rajya Sabha elections that gave BJP a clear edge in the upper house of the Parliament. Extending the greeting of the RamNavami to the people the PM preferred to speak about the feedback first and later on he came on the subsequent issues like water problem, issues related to farming and education, health and others. But the issue related to the farming community remained core issue for the PM this time. He also referred a large number of letters received from the children talking about several issues including water crisis. The PM also talked about the preparations about International Yoga Day and 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and greeted people for Mahavir Jayanti and Vaishakhi too. Praising the role of Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar in building of Modern India, the PM exhorted people to join the celebration of Dr. Ambedkar’s anniversary.

 “On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Dr. Ambedkar from April 14 to May 5 ‘Gram-Swaraj Abhiyan,’ is being organized. Under the aegis of this campaign, separate programmes on village development, poverty amelioration and social justice will be held throughout India. I urge you all to be a part of this campaign”, the PM said. However, the Prime Minister preferred to stay away from making any kind of comment on the ongoing debate on facebook or Aadhar data and its security related issues, during his address, showing his clear strategy to address the rural and semi-urban people and not the high tech community, targeted by leaders of other parties.

Delhi to induct 1000 electric buses for public transport

By CTW

The capital city Delhi is going to be the first city having largest fleet of the electric buses. According to the city budget presented on Thursday, the government has promised to induct 1000 electric buses in the city's transportation system. This number is the highest among any cosmopolitan's public transportation system.
The city already has largest fleet of CNG operated buses. Presenting the budget, city's Finance Minister also announced to allocate 26 percent of its allocations in the budget for education.

Heritage Metro: Delhi finds spl. reason to celebrate Eid

Chandan Sharma

 

Delhi has at least one reason to celebrate the Eid in a big way. Eid is known as the biggest festival for Muslim but this year Eid is really has been very special for the capital city as Heritage Metro took off in the auspicious month of Ramadan.

“We are really thankful to Metro man E. Sreedharan and government who planned to bring the elite transport system to old Delhi”, says Irfan, a resident of Old Delhi area. 

It is notable that Heritage Metro line was flagged off on 28^th May. The line connects Old Delhi with rest of the city. Old Delhi is also known as the most congested and populous area of Delhi with the historical areas like Red Fort, Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and many other historical place and centuries old commercial hub. The Metro line connects all these important area.

The old city is also known as the habitat of Muslim and traders community, most of them connect themselve with old Mughal empire. Mirza Ghalib, The biggest poet of Urdu literature to used to stay in this area. Historical documents say that the last Mughal empire or Bahadur Shah Zafar too used to be a dispel of the Mirza Ghalib.

Traditions and history apart, the heritage line has eased communication of the local people to the rest of the city. Connectivity to Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque of the country, too has eased to a lot during the Ramadan. As a result, number to devotees too has increased with the expansion of the heritage line.

“Though metro line used to connect several areas of old Delhi but this has touched the old city in a big manner”, says Akhtar. It is now much easier to reach the places like Fatehpuri Masjid, Jama Masjid and even best eateries of the Delhi.  

(Author is founder of Yuvavani.com)