Delhiites Are Not the Only Ones Responsible for Pollution: Gopal Rai Calls for Regional Action

The Environment Minister of Delhi Gopal Rai has expressed his concern over the rising pollution levels in the capital. He also held a press conference on Thursday in view of the pollution levels in Delhi. During this, he also explained the reasons for pollution in Delhi. However, Gopal Rai has not announced the implementation of GRAP 3 in Delhi at the moment in this press conference. During this, he said that Delhiites are not the only ones responsible for pollution in Delhi. Gopal Rai also presented the data analysis of pollution in Delhi between 12 October and 3 November. Rai said that this data tells us who is responsible for this pollution inside Delhi.

It is clear from this data that out of the total pollution in Delhi, 30.34 percent is responsible for Delhiites. Whereas 34.97 percent of pollution is caused by other districts of NCR. While 27 percent of the pollution found in Delhi is caused by other districts adjoining NCR areas. That is, only 30.34 percent of pollution in Delhi is caused by Delhiites. Apart from this, 69.66 percent of pollution comes to Delhi from NCR areas and other districts. The people of Delhi have to bear the brunt of pollution, not only because of the people of Delhi, but the level of pollution all around is affecting the people of Delhi. Gopal Rai said during this time that to reduce pollution, joint action will have to be made for Delhi-NCR and outside districts. Everyone will have to work on reducing pollution on their part.

Gopal Rai said that according to the data being released daily, when our government was formed in Punjab in 2022, there were 45172 incidents of stubble burning from 14 October to 13 November. When we worked in 2023, it came down to 26127 such incidents. In the same period, 7492 incidents have happened in Punjab. Our government has done extraordinary work in reducing the incidents of stubble burning in Punjab. We, the Aam Aadmi Party, have reduced the incidents of stubble burning by about 80 percent. This data is released by the central government daily. In Uttar Pradesh, which is adjacent to Delhi, there were 12371 incidents of stubble burning in 2022 and this year 20167 incidents have taken place in the same period.