Rules Ignored
In April, the Delhi Pollution Control Society did a door-to-door survey of 118 automobile service stations in the city, none of which had the mandatory pollution safety permits from the government.
After that survey, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, a government-run body, studied another 481 stations and found that 435 of them were not following environmental protocols either.
The pollution in the city also comes from domestic sources—people still burn coal, kerosene, cow dung and other dirty biomass fuels that the government cannot easily regulate.
“We are giving poison to our children,” said Satish. “Delhi is no longer a place to live.”
The Delhi Pollution Control Society has called for higher emission standards for vehicles, government health advisories on days when air pollution levels become dangerous, better controls on polluting industries and more alternative modes of transportation.
