Hundreds of people on Tuesday evening gathered at India Gate in the national capital to carry out a ‘citizens’ protest’ against the severe air pollution and alleged government inaction over the matter.
Watch the protest here:
“This is a citizens’ protest. This is primarily to register our anger and opposition to the government’s apathy. We have been hearing political parties blame each other for air pollution in Delhi for several years but at the end of the day, Delhi has become a gas chamber,” environmentalist Vimlendu Jha said.
Jha, who was leading the protest, said that Central and state governments have collectively failed to prevent air pollution in Delhi for several years.
“Every year, Delhi become a gas chamber in November and we stop talking about it by December. We don’t want the government to inform us that Delhi is very polluted, we want a solution. It is a collective failure as it is the responsibility of the state and central government to resolve the issue,” he added.
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Another protestor at India Gate, Bhavreen Kandhari said: “It is the same story every year. It always ends up in blame game and bickering. We are desperate and are asking our leaders to sit down and find a solution.”
Air quality in the national capital dipped to dangerous levels post Diwali as stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab, coupled with cracker-bursting led to increased pollution.
The Delhi government has rolled out the Odd-Even scheme in a bid to reduce air pollution. On Tuesday, the air quality in the Delhi-NCR region improved a little as the AQI was shifted from ‘severe’ to ‘very poor’ category.
(With ANI inputs)