Air pollution is\none of the biggest forms of pollution and contributing factors to the global\nemergency of climate change. While most people are aware of the air pollution\nin the northern parts of the country, including regions of New Delhi, NCR,\nHaryana and Uttar Pradesh among others. In an attempt to fight this, the\nGovernment of India launched the National Clean Air Action Programme (NCAP), on\n10 January 2019 under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.\nThe goal of the NCAP is to reduce pollution by about 20-30% of what it was in\nthe year 2017, by the year 2024.<\/p>\n\n
Irrespective of the\neffectiveness and importance of such a programme being introduced in the\ncountry, it is important to note that there have been over 100 polluted cities\nleft out of this programme, and one of these cities is the growing\nmetropolitan, Chennai, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. There\nhave been many reports on the deteriorating quality of air in the city, over\nthe course of this year. In accordance to the AQI, 0-50 indicates good air\nquality, 51-100 indicates satisfactory, 101-200 for moderate, 201-300 for poor,\n301- 400 for very poor and 401-500 for severe respectively. In the past month,\non November 4 2019 and November 8 2019 the Air Quality Index of the city went\nup to greater than 300, thus bringing it under the \u201cred-zone\u201d. However, the\ngovernment has been claiming this to be an effect of the cyclone bulbul and\nfaulty meters in CPCB monitoring stations in the city.<\/p>\n\n
The officials\nresponsible to maintain checks and balances have said, over time that the\ntransport department has been informed to make emission tests, apart from which\nmeetings have also been set up to discuss the same. However, what is alarming\nand must be drawn attention to, is the fact that Chennai has not yet been\ningrained into the NCAP, even after so many signals have been given out about\nthe situation of air pollution in the city. It is thus, the need of the hour to\nfight for justice, and for #cleanair, as this is my country, and we deserve\n#myrighttobreathe.<\/p>\n\n