As Delhi air quality remained very poor for the fourth day on Thursday after Diwali on Sunday, Delhi LG VK Saxena came down heavily on the government and said blaming other states for Delhi pollution is not a solution and the real solution lies in Delhi itself. Delhi needs action, not mere posturing, the LG posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that politics can wait. “We can do little to stop crop residue smoke from other States, apart from pleading with them. Despite States, especially Punjab playing truant, we are, but petitioners for mercy. AQI yet hovers around 400, making the Capital gasp,” the LG wrote.

“Crackers certainly add to the menace. The most affected in this gas chamber are those who commute on roads to earn their daily bread. The poor & the hapless living in slums & unauthorized colonies whose lungs are frying because they can’t afford to sit at home & buy air purifiers,” Saxena wrote. “The real solution to pollution in Delhi lies in Delhi itself.,” the LG wrote.

“We can mitigate the choking smog by reducing the dust that our unrepaired roads, unpaved pavements & construction sites cause. We can employ effective means to curb our vehicular emissions,” the LG added.

Smog in Delhi in the first week of November coinciding with the season of crop burning and Diwali has become a recurrent issue “subjected to nothing but platitude and rhetoric”, the LG said.

“Publicity around props like smog towers mean little & politics of propaganda that involve over hyped events like “Red Light On, Gaadi Off” and “Odd- Even” cannot hold the life of people of Delhi to ransom,” the LG criticised.

38% vehicular pollution: IIT-Kanpur study

A joint project by the Delhi government and IIT-Kanpur found that vehicular emissions accounted for about 38% of the capital’s air pollution on Wednesday. This is projected to rise to 40% on Thursday, PTI reported.

Calm winds and low temperatures are allowing accumulation of pollutants and relief is unlikely over the next few days, an official at the India Meteorological Department said.

Delhi-NCR AQI

Delhi’s Air Quality Index stood at 393 at 9 am on Thursday. Its 24-hour average AQI, recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 401 on Wednesday. It was 397 on Tuesday. It was 358 on Monday and 218 on Sunday, 220 on Saturday, 279 on Friday and 437 on Thursday. Neighbouring Ghaziabad (358), Gurugram (325), Greater Noida (343), Noida (337) and Faridabad (409) also recorded very poor to severe air quality.