Little improvement in air quality: Gopal Rai urges PM Modi to clear way for artificial rain

Four letters to Union Environment Minister on the issue have not elicited any response: Gopal Rai; he should have focused on farm fires in Punjab: BJP; Capital’s AQI remains in ‘severe plus’category

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and provide relief from the “medical emergency” by clearing hurdles in inducing artificial rain in the city even as he slammed the BJP-led Centre for its “carelessness” in responding to the toxic air crisis in north India.

However, the BJP’s Delhi unit said the air quality could have improved significantly had Mr. Rai, instead of writing letters about artificial rain, asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Punjab to check stubble burning.

The City residents continued to breathe heavily polluted air with the air quality index (AQI) in the ‘severe plus’ category for the second consecutive day on Tuesday. Delhi is likely to breathe ‘severe’ quality air till Friday.

Meanwhile, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jamia Milia Islamia on Tuesday shifted to the online mode of teaching till November 23, a day after Delhi University stopped physical classes till November 23 due to the toxic air.

Delhi’s overall 24-hour AQI was 460 at 4 p.m. on Tuesday — the worst in the country — according to the Central Pollution Control Board.

The AQI is a measurement of air pollution on a scale of 0-500. An AQI between 401 and 450 is considered ‘severe’ and 451 and 500 ‘severe plus’.

‘Lack of urgency’

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Rai said he had written to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav four times in the past three months, seeking permission to induce artificial rain by conducting cloud seeding in the Capital. However, Mr. Yadav did not respond to any letter, said the Delhi Minister.

Inducing artificial rain to settle pollutants was part of the 21-point Winter Action Plan the Delhi government launched on September 25.

“It is deeply disheartening to say that the BJP-led Central government has shown a lack of urgency even as half of north India suffers from severe pollution,” said Mr. Rai. He added, “This is the BJP’s carelessness. I want to make an appeal today, including to the Prime Minister, to find a solution to the crisis.”

He said if the Central government does not have any solution to improve the air quality other than the restrictions that have already been imposed, it should help in inducing artificial rain. He added that the government is contemplating introducing more measures, such as the odd-even vehicle-rationing scheme and work-from-home policy.

BJP holds protests

Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said air quality in Delhi would have improved significantly had Mr. Rai “put as much effort into addressing real issues as he does in making statements and writing letters about artificial rain”. He said the city residents would have breathed better air by now had the Delhi Minister written to his party’s government in Punjab over farm fires and the Public Works Department over broken roads.

Delhi BJP leaders, including city unit chief Virendra Sachdeva, East Delhi MP Harsh Malhotra, North East Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari, and former Union Minister Vijay Goel, held protests in the city over the rising pollution by distributing N95 masks.

According to the latest data by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, the contribution of stubble burning in the neighbouring States to PM2.5 (a chief pollutant) in Delhi on November 17 was 13.06%.

Published - November 20, 2024 01:22 am IST