Delhi air crisis: Kiran Bedi seeks white paper to fix accountability; demands banning air purifiers in govt offices

Former IPS officer and former Punducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Sunday (Nov 30) reiterated her demands for fixing accountability for Delhi's worsening air pollution crisis. She suggested that the government should prepare a white paper on the reasons behind the air crisis, the responsibility of past governments, and the challenges in solving the prevailing crisis in Delhi-NCR.

In her latest post, she outlined a two-part suggestion to tackle air pollution. The first part seeks accountability and causes of the present situation, while in the second part Bedi advised preparing a detailed future roadmap to deal with toxic air, "where do we go from here to halt the decline? And reverse the crisis. What are the immediate, short-term, and long-term measures and by whom? And How? With proposed timelines," she said in a post on X.

On Saturday, the former police officer voiced serious concern about the national capital's deteriorating AQI, saying she could not watch her city "Suffer", describing the capital's condition as "Choking and gasping" after a steep decline in past years.

She emphasised that to come to a solution "it demands feet on the ground", and that "officers need to walk the streets daily at 9 AM, before they go to offices" to witness the crisis themselves so they can work towards coordinated solutions instead of waiting for reports."

The social worker advocated for banning air purifiers in government offices and resistance to public expense "How officials who are working in offices with purifiers, driving in a car with purifiers, and living in a house with purifiers know the air quality outside? Also, all at official costs?" she wrote.

"How about the installation of air purifiers in govt offices and residences at govt cost get banned? Or else how will they breathe polluted air to know what happens? Further, it inhibits their going to the field and checking hot spots," she added.

Kiran Bedi’s appeal to Prime Minister

Previously, Bedi had directly appealed to the Prime Minister, drawing on her experience working with him. She praised his ability to overcome obstacles and motivate people to meet deadlines efficiently.

In her post, she wrote, “Sir, forgive me for requesting once more. During my tenure in Puducherry, I witnessed how effective your Zoom meetings were, how you ensured timely performance on several national tasks and inspired everyone to achieve their targets.”

Bedi urged Prime Minister Modi to conduct monthly virtual meetings with the Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries of the states surrounding Delhi to monitor progress on controlling pollution. She said such meetings would reassure the public, as they would feel the issue is under his direct supervision.

For the past two weeks, Delhi’s Air Quality Index has fluctuated between the ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories despite the implementation of anti-pollution measures.