5 yrs in Kejriwal’s Delhi : The Tribune India

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5 yrs in Kejriwal’s Delhi

Given Delhi’s status as the national capital, with all the paraphernalia the Central government commands, it is easy to miss the ‘Delhi Government’.

5 yrs in Kejriwal’s Delhi

Delhi breathes politics, and when the air quality makes it choke, politics over it is a given. CM Arvind Kejriwal will contemplate on Monday on whether to extend the car-rationing Odd-Even scheme.



Vibha Sharma in New Delhi

Given Delhi’s status as the national capital, with all the paraphernalia the Central government commands, it is easy to miss the ‘Delhi Government’. In those terms, AAP’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appears to have managed well, enhancing his position and recall value through measures aimed at those who matter the most to any political party in the metropolis — the lower middle class and migrants steaming in by droves.

‘Mohalla clinics’, reduced electricity bills, upgraded-rejuvenated government schools and somewhat improved water supply in parts are all efforts directed at these sections. It is a bonus when the affluent in uppity South Delhi areas, who visit these ‘Mohalla clinics’ as an “outing or for curiosity sake”, also come back “pleasantly surprised and impressed”.


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The good...

The roadside, easily-accessible health clinics, better looking government schools and low electricity bills (this month many received ‘zero’ figure bills) — basically the basic human needs — are the biggest takeaways in Delhi, which will vote to elect the new government early next year.

Talk to people living in colonies or urban villages — maids who work in homes, men who guard colony/society gates, Ola/Uber drivers — and there will be stories about “good schools, reduced electricity bills and improved water supply”.

Delhi is a sprawling city with the second most populous urban agglomeration in the world, always in perpetual need of water and better infrastructure. Fights break out frequently in neighbourhoods when government-run water tankers arrive, but with regular water supply twice a day in several areas, people claim that Kejriwal has managed to crack down on the “private tanker mafia”.

More regular electricity supply has done the same to the “generator mafia”, claim residents in colonies, while reduced tariffs have added to the pockets of those for whom every small saving matters, they add.

Upgraded government schools with fresh coats of paint, quality infrastructure, helpful teachers and regular parent-teacher meetings have all raised the ratings of AAP among the lower middle class.

The bad and the ugly...

From the politics of confrontation to delivering basics, Kejriwal has come a long way, but has the “quality of life” in Delhi improved during his time in office? The answer may not be so simple.

Delhi is a bad, rather a very bad, place to live in its current environmental conditions and the fact is that the Kejriwal government has not done much to improve either roads or public transport. The eastern and the western peripheral highways that reduced the entry of heavy vehicles in Delhi are courtesy the Centre and so is infrastructure like the Dhaula Kuan flyover.

The AAP government has added new buses to the ageing DTC fleet, but only very recently. The much-publicised Odd-Even scheme can at best be called a measure that added to the perception of the people living in the virtual gas chamber that “something is being done”. In any case, it is not a solution to the serious health hazard that people are facing round the year. Kejriwal’s politics is clear about what constitutes Delhi for him, but his health concerns remain limited to ‘Mohalla clinics’, not air quality.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the range of 500 and beyond is like smoking 30 to 40 cigarettes a day. An AQI between 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’, and 401-500 ‘severe’. 

Above 500 is ‘severe-plus or emergency’ category and many places in Delhi and the neighbourhood are currently battling that and more.

The solutions are out there but not much has been done to put these into practice, and this includes the BJP-led Centre. A meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Friday to address the pollution crisis had to be cancelled as most officials and MPs did not turn up. That’s the level of seriousness on the issue. 

Delhi’s in situ dust

Burning of paddy stalk in neighbouring states may be a contributor to Delhi’s severe air quality, but other factors, in situ mostly, fall in the domain of the Delhi government. A study on Delhi’s air quality by IIT-Kanpur called road dust the top contributor to rising levels of PM 2.5 in the city. 

Delhi’s location and agro-climatic conditions make it a dust bowl, but higher levels of dust are attributed to reasons which are Delhi-centric, it said.

In other words, windblown dust from Rajasthan and other areas is not the key factor of air pollution in Delhi; the biggest contributor is unpaved roads, barren shoulders and dust deposits at construction sites. The IIT study submitted to the Delhi Government around 2016, which identified factors that caused pollution, also recommended steps to tackle it with “an integrated pollution control approach in the region”.

Pollution control approach nowhere in sight

The fact is that Delhi’s air pollution is not limited to winters, only the sources of PM10 and PM2.5 contributing to air quality are different from summers.

The winter sources include secondary particles, vehicles, biomass burning, municipal solid waste burning, and to a lesser extent soil and road dust.

Summer sources include coal and fly ash, soil and road dust, secondary particles, biomass burning, vehicles and municipal solid waste burning. Any action plan should include control of all sources, but are the politicians listening?

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