Social media goes berserk as New Delhi struggles to breathe

The Delhi government has done its best to regularise the odd-even rule. However, political pressure and bureaucratic intervention has added on the to the burden of executing the rule. Twitter, meanwhile, has gone crazy with hilarious tweets from Delhiites and others residing in the national capital.

New Delhi, it seems, is choking to death day by day. The problems are unlimited, but there are no apparent solutions. The present government of New Delhi has tried to execute its pitch of reducing the pollution levels in the air in the national capital, but they seem to have failed in a big way, thanks to the bureaucratic and political interventions. From designing the odd-even rule to finding more ecological ways of power generation, the government has left no stones unturned to ensure that the citizens lead a healthy life.

Needless to say, Delhi's environmental sustainability, ecology and air quality have been under immense pressure given the bumper population boost in the last few years. Experts believe that the burden on the city has multiplied, thus deteriorating the condition of the city rapidly as it suffers from the urban heat island effect, compounded by the effects of urbanisation, unequal rural growth and climate change.

The political apathy that follows reaches an alarming level as unified planning, scientific thinking,  engineering innovation, administrative compliance and cross-national cooperation fail to work together toward the air pollution control in the city. 

Incidentally, the efforts made by the Delhi Government were single-sided and lacked backing with the bureaucrats standing in the way with dharnas and strikes. The strike ahead of the odd-even execution is a case in point. While the public supported the odd-even regulation enthusiastically, there was pressure from all political quarters to plug the initiative. The Delhi government, however, did not stop at that. According to an article by the FIRSTPOST, it cracked down upon waste burning at over 550 sites, apart from controlling the dust due to improper construction through 1300 fines, even against government organisations. Public transport was encouraged and it indeed received an overwhelming response on odd-even days. 

All said and done, the Delhi government has to combat forces that are much more bothersome and given its reputation, it would certainly take some time before things, including the pollution check, will fall back in place.

Meanwhile, social media is going berserk with hilarious tweets and messages from people across the country. Some, even combined digs at the Indigo incident and the pollution in Delhi.