Does Delhi alone deserve better air?

NEW DELHI: The budget 2018 stated that “a special scheme will be implemented to support the efforts of the governments of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidise machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue.”

Just before the budget, I read a Greenpeace India Report, Airpocalypse II, based on government data. It showed that some of the data across 280 cities was erroneous, although much was useful. The report also said that 580 million Indians lived without air monitoring.

What we can measure, we can remedy, although this shouldn’t come in our way to reduce known sources of air pollution.

The report pointed out that it wasn’t just Delhi-ncr or UP that was battling pollution. States in both the southern and northern parts of the country are also reeling under it.

In Andhra Pradesh, several cities showed dangerous levels of PM 10.

The case was similar in Himachal Pradesh. Greenpeace points out that “the largest numbers of people in areas with more than twice the stipulated levels of pollution are in Uttar Pradesh (64 million), followed by Rajasthan (20 million), Maharashtra (19 million), Delhi (17 million) and Bihar (15 million).” Shouldn’t these states be given priority in the budget?

Delhi got special attention, because of its residents’ protests and its own importance as the national capital.

However, this won’t change the growing problem at a national level as almost one lakh Indians die every month from outdoor air pollution. Every district and town in India must begin to measure air pollution, make the data available and starting at once, prevent air pollution using common-sense, regardless of the data or the lack of it. Let’s not wait to be rescued by future budgets.