You can imagine how serious the Delhi government is about stopping air pollution by looking at the rules for banning firecrackers. Delhi government had announced ban on firecrackers in September itself but did not issue its notification. She was waiting for Vijayadashami to pass so that there would be no hindrance in using a lot of firecrackers to burn the effigy of Ravana. On Saturday, October 12, a lot of firecrackers were burst in Delhi and the air quality index in Delhi dropped four times. Then two days later, on October 14, the Delhi government issued a notification banning firecrackers. Now that the air quality has deteriorated to the worst category, the first phase of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) has been implemented and Forest and Environment Minister Gopal Rai is going around and imposing fines on the sites where construction activities are taking place.
This is all a sham, the purpose of which is to send a message to the people as well as the judiciary that the state government is doing something. The reality is that the state government has nothing to do. Somehow the time of two and a half months has to be passed. At the same time, the solution to implement odd-even is also being discussed and a new Shigufa Congestion Tax i.e. a solution to impose tax on increasing crowd of vehicles is being discussed. Under this, there is a provision to impose tax on entry of vehicles from outside or if there are more vehicles. However, this solution has not been effective in most places from New York to London. That’s why it seems that the purpose of talking about this tax is to throw dust in people’s eyes. In fact, Delhi government has not done anything regarding air pollution throughout the year. Therefore, when the time of pollution comes, she wants to be seen doing something.