In a survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in November last year, 45% of those surveyed considered air pollution to be the biggest problem in the national capital. Around 10% said that they would vote keeping the pollution crisis in mind. However, there is a clear lack of prioritization of environmental issues in the key agendas of the three main political parties contesting the Delhi elections.
On November 2, 2019, Delhi declared a health emergency due to severe air pollution. Delhi has recorded an average air quality of 224 on the air quality index for the past seven years. It is 124% higher than the limit prescribed by the Indian government and almost 350% higher than the standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
As per the data released by the state government, between the years 2014 and 2016, Delhi witnessed a 66% increase in the deaths due to respiratory diseases. The Union Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change recorded that there were 9,149 respiratory deaths in 2016, compared to 5,516 in 2014. According to another study, air pollution accounts for around 10,000 to 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi.
Medical research has linked air pollution with cardiovascular diseases, irreversible damage to children’s lungs, infertility, birth complications, and stillbirths. Cleaning up Delhi’s air will improve its public health and will increase the average life expectancy of its residents by six to ten years.
Thus, it is also pertinent to understand how the three key parties–Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress–will deal with air pollution if elected into power.
Arvind Kejriwal has promised to reduce air pollution by one-third of the present level. BJP Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari has promised to tackle the issue within two years, and Congress has also announced similar plans.
Aam Aadmi Party
AAP has included a reduction in air pollution and achieving clean air in its ‘guarantee card’. It aims to achieve this through solid waste management, planting 20 million trees, and increasing public transportation in the city. It has also promised to regulate construction activity, which is a significant contributor to dust in the city. The government is also considering implementing different office hours for different workplaces to reduce traffic congestion.
At the height of air pollution in November last year, the Delhi government again launched the ‘odd-even’ scheme to reduce vehicular pollution. During the CSDS survey, eight of every ten respondents expressed their support for the scheme and interestingly, 76% of the respondents belonging to car-owning households were likely to support it. That being said, the scheme could not curb the rising level of pollution in the city as it excluded two-wheelers, which form the largest portion of transport emission.
According to the analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), transportation is the largest source of air pollution in Delhi, contributing 18-39% to the city’s pollution, followed by road dust (18-38%), industries (2-29%), power plants (3-11%) and construction (8%).
The party has also promised to extend the metro network to 500 kilometres, from the existing 389 kilometres, to increase the use of public transport. The government has already made bus rides free for women to incentivise and make public transportation affordable. Moreover, it has also promised 11,000 plus buses and free rides for students as well. The share of people relying on public transportation is declining due to rising fares. This makes the issue of affordability relevant in making people more reliant on public transportation.
The Delhi government also released its electric vehicle policy last year. It aimed to convert 25% of the city’s vehicles into EVs to reduce air pollution. It aims to waive off taxes and registration on EVs.
Delhi’s chief minister has time and again blamed stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab for the spike in pollution level. However, several studies have concluded that this only accounts for 20-30% of Delhi’s fine particulate pollution. Also, the stubble burning happens only during October and November, but pollution in Delhi is a year-long phenomenon.
Bharatiya Janata Party
The BJP has also promised to increase the existing fleet of buses by 10,000 and to incentivise the use of electric vehicles. In August 2017, Piyush Goyal, the Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy, announced that India would sell and produce only EVs by 2030. However, Babul Supriyo, Minister of State for Heavy Industries stated in Parliament that no such plan is under consideration.
Moreover, Prakash Javadekar, India’s environment minister, denied any link between air pollution and premature deaths in the Parliament. He attacked the opposition for creating a “fear psychosis among people”. World Health Organization (WHO) officials rebuked the minister for his comments. The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has reported that one in eight deaths in India in 2017 was due to air pollution.
On November 18 last year, the Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA), a central government-constituted committee for the National Capital Region (NCR), submitted a report entitled ‘Special Report on Pollution hot spots in the NCR, Requesting Urgent Directions to Improve Enforcement and Pollution Control’ to the Supreme Court.
The report stated that the city’s pollution has decreased and air quality has improved from 2010 to 2019. Despite the report citing the shut down of power plants and a shift towards natural gas, a new 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power plant has been approved in the NCR. The report also claims that there has been a drop in diesel car sales due to Environmental Pollution Charges. However, much of this can be attributed to an overall slowdown of the entire automobile sector. Moreover, it also states that 80% of the city’s waste is processed through incineration–controlled waste-burning–which violates the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016. It is important to note that the majority of the waste is compostable and non-combustible.
The central government also diluted the norms for power plants that were established between 2003 and 2016, with Minister of Environment Prakash Javedkar announcing that industries are no longer required to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Departments of Pollution, Labor and Industry in Delhi. Delhi’s coal plants authorised by the BJP have failed to meet emission standards.
The BJP has also promised to conserve and increase forest cover and talked, implement mechanised sweeping and water sprinkling to control dust, and install air purification systems in public spaces and transports. However, it has not announced any measures to monitor construction activity. Rather, the central government has removed hurdles for environmental clearances and disempowered national environmental bodies such as the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Congress
Congress has outlined a detailed manifesto that pledges 25% of its budget towards curbing pollution. The party has promised to develop affordable public transportation to carry 80% of the population and ensure last-mile connectivity. It has also taken the ‘green manifesto’ designed by United Residents’ Joint Action (URJA) into consideration. It aims to set up a unified metropolitan authority for better-coordinated planning between different modes of transport. The manifesto also promises to procure 15,000 new electric buses and set up government committees to periodically review the utility and quality of public transport in the city. It has also earmarked Rs. 1,100 crores towards its 2025 goal of making sure 50% of all registered vehicles are electric.
In addition, the party has promised to make the felling of trees illegal and plant 50 lakh trees every year to increase the green cover to 30% of the city’s area. The party has also promised to create a digital map of areas with harmful dust to establish a dust management plan.
Delhi's Pollution Crisis: AAP, BJP, and Congress' Environmental Election Manifestos
February 11, 2020
SOURCE: SOHAM SEN