In a stark observation made by the Central Pollution Control Board, Varanasi, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi intends to make a smart city on the lines of Kyoto, is one of the most polluted places in the country to live in. Out of the 227 days for which the air quality measurements were taken last year, the holy city could record not a single good-air day.
According to a CPCB data-based report, “Varanasi Chokes”, presented jointly by IndiaSpend, Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) and Care4Air here at a workshop on Monday, Varanasi and Allahabad both had zero good-air quality days last year. Moreover, Varanasi and Allahabad had not a single good-air quality day out of the 227 and 263 days monitored respectively.
The CPCB bulletin released in July this year suggests that Lucknow had 15, Kanpur 85, Agra 28 and Ghaziabad 5 good air days in 2015. In the 46 million-plus cities, the air quality is monitored at 205 operating monitoring stations. Of these cities, air quality data for 2015 is available for 41 cities (except for Ranchi, Meerut, Srinagar, Kalyan-Dombivili & Vasai Virar).
According to author of “Varanasi Chokes”, Aishwarya Maidineni, there is an eight-fold rise in the respiratory ailments in the city due to rising air pollution. “Despite being one of the most polluted cities in the country, Varanasi lacks adequate air quality monitoring stations as compared to Delhi.
While the CPCB has only one online air quality monitoring devise that is capable of measuring PM2.5 and PM10, no AIQ score is available for the city. In comparison, Delhi has 13 online CPCB monitored stations capable of measuring PM10 and PM2.5 and an AQI score is available every day.”
Source: India Times
