Delhi residents demand urgent action as AQI stays in 'very poor' zone

Hundreds of Delhiites including students from JNU Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia staged a protest at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday demanding immediate action to improve the national capitals air qualityDelhi has been battling persistently very poor air postDiwali with the Air Quality Index AQI staying above 300 for daysOn Tuesday the city woke up to another day of toxic haze recording an overall AQI of 344 while four monitoring stations reported pollution levels in the iquestsevereiquest category according to CPCB dataProtesters wore industrialgrade respiratory masks as symbolic props and held placards including ones that read Delhi ICU mein hai Govt kahan hai Several demonstrators said the deteriorating air had severely impacted daytoday life in northern IndiaThe quality of life is finished in northern India We are getting health issues due to bad air our children are suffering What will we do with a fivetrilliondollar economy if citizens live in such an environment a protestor askedAnother demonstrator Shahid criticised the BJPruled Delhi government for not tackling real issuesBlaming previous governments cannot go on The government ordered air purifiers for its offices so that leaders can breathe clean air But what about common people he saidA DU student Anjali said they had organised a similar protest at India Gate on November 10 during which around 15 women were detained and allegedly dropped off in Bawana late at nightWe will not make peace with the situation Clean air is our fundamental right she saidShe alleged the Delhi government was manipulating AQI data wasting public funds on cloudseeding despite scientific objections and taking no steps to curb the causes of pollutionHolding a poster that read Plants are giving us oxygen but are we inhaling poison a boy said his throat had been hurting due to the rising pollutionPollution should be stopped The situation is very poor he addedOn November 9 scores of people including parents and environmental activists staged a protest at the India Gate against the worsening air quality in the national capitalLater Some protestors were also detained by the Delhi Police citing absence of permission for protestThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever