(New Delhi) Schools will be closed from Saturday in New Delhi due to the “dangerous” level of air pollution caused by agricultural burning in northern India, adding to industrial and road emissions, announced on Friday authorities.
Posted at 8:40 a.m.
“We are closing primary schools from tomorrow (Saturday) until the pollution situation improves,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told reporters.
“No child should suffer in any way,” he stressed.
According to the Swiss air quality monitoring company, IQAir, the level of PM 2.5 particles, the most dangerous, was Friday 25 times higher than the maximum level set by the World Health Organization.
With cooler air every winter, a yellowish, toxic haze, fueled by agricultural burns, industrial emissions and road transport, stagnates and persists in the megalopolis of 20 million people.
Delhi is consistently ranked among the most polluted cities in the world. On Friday, it topped IQAir’s list of major cities with the most stale air.
In 2020, a Lancet study attributed 1.67 million deaths to air pollution in India in 2019, including almost 17,500 in the capital.
The Delhi authorities regularly announce different plans to reduce pollution, but they have had little effect.
Agricultural burning across Punjab and other states is in principle banned, but farmers remain unmoved by calls for clean practices.
India’s air quality monitoring agency said agricultural burning was responsible for a third of air pollution in Delhi on Thursday.
The situation has taken a political turn, with the Indian capital and Punjab being governed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a rival of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Now is not the time for blaming and throwing accusations,” said Mr Kejriwal, flanked by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
“It will not help us find solutions. We can blame them, and they can blame us, but that would lead nowhere,” he continued in reference to BJP criticism.
“Farmers need solutions. The day they get a solution, they will stop burning stubble,” he added.
On Wednesday, Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, a member of the BJP, had lamented on Twitter that “Punjab, a state ruled by the AAP, (experiences) an increase of more than 19% in agricultural burning compared to 2021 ” .
“We know who is turning Delhi into a gas chamber,” he said.