Cong MP Shashi Tharoor questions Delhi's status as national capital as smog level soars 60 times above WHO limit

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor raised concerns on Nov 18 about whether Delhi should continue to serve as India's capital, as the city's hazardous smog levels surged to more than 60 times the daily maximum limit recommended by the World Health Organization.

A dense layer of smog has blanketed the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) for the sixth day in a row, causing the air quality index (AQI) to drop into the "severe-plus" category.

The air quality in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram reached "alarmingly high" levels. Even on the morning of Nov 19, the majority of AQI stations reached the 500-mark.

"Delhi is officially the most polluted city in the world, at 4x hazardous levels and nearly five times as bad as the second most polluted city, Dhaka. It is unconscionable that our government has been witnessing this nightmare for years and does nothing about it," Tharoor posted on X.

The Congress MP said he had been running an Air Quality Round Table for experts and stakeholders, including MPs, since 2015 but "gave up" last year since "nothing seemed to change and no one seemed to care.

"This city is essentially uninhabitable from Nov to January inclusive and barely livable the rest of the year. Should it even remain the nation's capital?" Tharoor added.

In the face of deteriorating air quality in the nation's capital, Delhi University has decided to switch to online courses until Nov 23 and Jawaharlal Nehru University until Nov 22, while the Union Health Secretary issued an updated advisory to states and union territories on Nov 18 regarding air pollution.

Anand Vihar, Ashok Vihar, Bawana, Jahangirpuri, Major Dhyan Chand Stadium, and numerous other locations in Delhi had air quality indexes (AQIs) that were over 500 at 5 am on Nov 19, raising concerns for public health and safety, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The areas in Delhi with the poorest air quality at 5 am were Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (500), Dwarka Sector-8 (498), Munka (500), North Campus (500), RK Puram (499), and Wazirpur (500).

Delhi University announced in a notification that normal classes in "physical mode" will resume on Nov 25. According to JNU's statement, all classes will be held online till Nov 22nd. However, the exam and interview schedules have not changed, according to the universities.

In the interest of public health, the Delhi government has called the air situation a "medical emergency" and asked institutions to take precautionary action. Weather and stubble burning are the two main elements affecting the air quality in the city.

Due to the bad air quality, several institutions and universities in the region have already begun to offer online classes. On Nov 18, the Delhi government declared that physical classes for students 10 and 12 will be stopped.

"From tomorrow, physical classes shall be suspended for classes 10 and 12 as well, and all studies will be shifted online," Delhi chief minister Atishi said in a post on X.

The directorate of education, too, issued a circular instructing the heads of government and private schools to suspend classes for all students, including standard 10 and 12.

States and UTs are advised by the Union health secretary's guidance to improve their current health systems and increase awareness among at-risk occupations and vulnerable populations.

The advisory recommends creating thorough action plans at the municipal and district levels to address the health effects of climate change, including methods to reduce air pollution.

In order to effectively respond to and monitor illnesses linked to air pollution in each state or union territory, it also places a strong emphasis on growing the network of sentinel hospitals.

The Supreme Court ordered all states in the Delhi-NCR region to immediately establish teams to strictly enforce anti-pollution Graded Response Action Plan-IV (GRAP) restrictions after the AQI entered the "severe plus" category.

The court made it clear that the curbs would remain in place until further orders. According to the court, every state has a constitutional obligation to guarantee that all of its residents live in a pollution-free environment.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) was also criticized by the Supreme Court for "delaying" the execution of the GRAP and for taking the "wrong" approach.

Delhi and its surrounding regions, which have a population of almost 7 crore, consistently rank first in the world for air pollution in the winter because cold air traps dust, pollutants, and smoke from illegal stubble burning by farmers in nearby Punjab and Haryana to clear their fields for ploughing.