I was passing by the Sultanpur Road and was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Shocked, I asked my driver to stop the car and got out. Upon looking around me, to my immense horror, I saw parali being burnt in a field adjoining the highway. It was being done in a row and the scene looked as if a number of pyres were being burnt along a ghat in Kashi! Now, it was a secluded, back-of-beyond place. No government official was present to take note. My complaint with an environment official also drew a nonchalant “oh, it is being done all the time. I will ask some official to look into it”. Well!
This is one case. I would like to point out here that besides the notorious parali, garbage is being burnt openly in every area of a city despite tall claims of correct collection and disposal of domestic and other wastes. All the exercises and revisions into segregation, collection, transportation, and final disposal have failed. Yes, failed! Everywhere you can see not just the common man, but the safai worker happily putting piles of waste to fire- this is more common in commercial and semi-commercial/residential areas. I have witnessed many educational institutions of repute doing the same on their campuses. If I corrected them, the response was mostly that it was garden waste. Well, its burning is also not allowed and causes pollution in the air. If the educators default, what can we expect from the taught!
If you make videos of such mishappenings and send them to concerned (not literally) officials, nothing happens. There is no corrective measure at all- no penalizing the guilty, no repeated checks to ensure non-recurrence of the ‘crime’! Some responsible work our administration is doing! We generally blame the government for everything, when it is actually the administration that is at fault. In government offices, mostly the top official or the IAS/IPS/PCS (direct representative of government) remains clueless while the babus or middle section officials do all the filthy work- not every time the boss is hand-in-glove, most of the time it is on the contrary! Similarly, if parali or garbage is being burnt, it is the zonal, civic and environmental officer who is responsible. If he is not doing his job, it should be reported and he should be immediately removed! The government is very quick in taking action against such complaints, but one has to come forward and file a complaint either online or with the head of the department concerned.
The solution to curbing air pollution to some extent by stopping such open burnings is by us taking charge, voicing disapproval and not hesitating from going against our area official or even the corporator by complaining against them if they are not listening, or are patronizing the guilty. Unless we raise our voice and see whether it is being heard by the government or not, can we justly blame the government for everything?
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