Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and the Environment in Delhi, explains the underlying causes of why “since 2007, pollution levels have risen to reach the dangerously toxic levels today,” and what actions can and must be taken to clean our air. She and her colleagues at CSE have put together a 12-step reform package that includes an “aggressive roadmap for clean fuel and vehicle technology in the country, monitoring air quality to smog alerts, etc. The most critical (gamechanger), she says, “is the need to massively augment our public transportation systems, the bus, metro, footpaths and cycle tracks, so that we can take a bus and then cross the road or just walk. We also need car restraints. Parking rates and fines for illegal parking need to be increased and then enforced.Today, we have a handful of cranes and a sprinkling of traffic police to stop illegal parking. This cannot go on. Let us be clear, actions for cleaning our air are within our reach. But only if we accept that polluted air is a killer. This slow murder must be stopped.” The Indian Express. Read it on delhiair.org.
delhiair.org - be informed and active about air quality in New Delhi, India 