Row between minister and residents over Delhi air quality

Dave says no conclusive data to link deaths exclusively with air pollution

An umbrella body of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) across Delhi yesterday slammed Union Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Anil Madhav Dave for his comments discounting health impact of the poor air quality in the national capital.

“The statement by the minister discounting the health impact of the poor air quality in the country will cause confusion in the minds of the public. It will be detrimental to the efforts of the people who are trying to run a movement for cleaner air,” Ashutosh Dikshit, Head, United Residents’ Joint Action of Delhi (URJA), told Gulf News.

He said the minister’s remarks would set back efforts to build social consciousness about clean air.

“That which impacts health negatively is also capable of causing or hastening death. There are enough studies conducted both in India and globally to establish this relationship,” Dikshit added.

A network of 2,500 residents’ associations, URJA was set up in 2005 with a goal to ensure efficient delivery of civic amenities like clean air and water.

Earlier this week, Dave, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament), said that there was no conclusive data to link deaths exclusively with air pollution.

He was reacting to a Greenpeace study that had claimed that nearly 1,200,000 deaths took place every year in India due to air pollution.

Greenpeace India’s report ‘Airpocalypse’ had said Delhi tops the list of 20 most polluted cities in the country where 1.2 million deaths take place every year due to air pollution. It also claimed that none of the 168 cities it assessed complies with air quality standards prescribed by the WHO.