In an unprecedented move, the Mayor of Kolkata, Sovan Chatterjee, who also happens to be the state Environment Minister, called for a press conference on Friday, 19 January, to address the issue of air pollution in the city.
Speaking at the press conference, Chatterjee said that there was a difference between the government figures and the American Consulate’s data, which is the only publicly available pollution data for the city.
Kolkata is not worse than Delhi, according to our government’s data. Lies are being peddled, which it is worse.Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata
Chatterjee said that the American Embassy had been informed of the inaccurate data in their report, adding that the city government was planning to launch a graded response system.
There was “political vendetta” behind people calling Kolkata more polluted than Delhi, the mayor added.
A copy of data comparing pollution levels in Delhi and Kolkata (according to government figures) from 1 to 15 January 2018 was made available to the media. However, even according to those figures, Kolkata was worse than Delhi on four days and the Air Quality Index on all days in the city was above the ‘hazardous’ level.
The mayor, however, blamed the spike on weather conditions and didn’t answer questions on why the citizens weren’t made aware of the toxic air during those days.
Pollution levels in the city have shot up exponentially in the recent past, with levels of particulate pollutant matter (PM) 2.5 exceeding 10 times the safe limit in some places during peak traffic hours.
On 16 January 2017, Kolkata was named the most polluted city in the world, according to data from the American Embassy. That claim too was turned down by the mayor, who said that such reports are “bringing a bad name to Kolkata.”
The automated real-time pollution monitors of the city have been defunct since November 2017, as reported by The Quint, and there is no real-time pollution data available in the public domain. However, no concrete date was provided when The Quint asked the mayor when the pollution data would be made available in the public domain.
The Kolkata mayor also evaded questions on why the monitors have been defunct, and said that the government must be allowed time to fix them due to change in technology. When The Quint asked why these changes were not put in place before the peak pollution season, he evaded that question too.
The Quint also reported that in the Christmas-New Year week, pollution levels in Kolkata were consistently higher than even Delhi, which is perceived to be the most polluted city in the country.
Environmentalists have called the pollution situation in the city "alarming," with agencies like the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) even asking the West Bengal government if it was trying to "hide pollution levels when it is at its peak.”
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