Even as Delhi continues to grapple with worsening air quality in the middle of the peak air-pollution season, extremely critical Government orders to control and mitigate air-pollution in the city, that should have been issued by the Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar way back in October, have yet not been issued. Delhi Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) VK Saxena has expressed his "displeasure" over an alleged delay on the part of the Delhi Government in issuing an order on pollution control measures and directed that it be conveyed to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In what Saxena termed "gross negligence", the critical order to mitigate air pollution in the city should have been issued by the Chief Secretary back in October but hasn't been issued yet, the sources said. "The lapse on the part of the Delhi Government is due to the fact that Environment Minister Gopal Rai did not clear the file related to issuing such orders for about a month,” sources claimed. “This unreasonable and unjustifiable antipathy towards people of Delhi resulted in toxic air quality in the city during the month of November and could have been avoided to a large extent,” officials said.
The Chief Secretary, in compliance with a November 2019 order of the Supreme Court order and an order of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) dated August 5, 2022, sent the file for approval to Rai on October 22. "The file was returned to the chief secretary on November 17 without any observation of the minister. Afterwards, the chief secretary sent the file to the LG and was approved," the source said.