The air quality level in national capital has slid further and touched calamitous levels. Apart from Delhi, neighbouring Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida are also battling pollution problem. Every year as the winter sets in smog engulfs national capital and creates havoc. But unfortunately the policymakers do not seems to learn any lesson from it. No concerted effort has been made to fight the pollution.
The present crisis also laid bare the lack of action by the governments of Delhi and its neighbouring states to address the causes. On the other hand political leaders are resorting to familiar blame-game. The central government is keeping mum and has not shown any desire to take any kind of initiative to tackle pollution problem. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also shifting goal post and keeps on blaming Punjab and Haryana governments for not doing enough to stop burning of stubble. The time has come to end this petty blame game and take some urgent action. The central government should intervene and call a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in order to put joint effort to fight the menace of pollution. Unless there is proper coordination between these northern states the growing pollution level will continue to haunt them. A long term plan should be envisaged in this regard. Short term measures like odd-even formula will not be of any help in the long run.