OPINION

There is a saying in English, Man proposes; God disposes. It means people can make plans; God determines how things will turn out. In the past decade that we have had the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital, its functioning could well acquire the sobriquet of government proposes and the system disposes.

The most recent example for it being the statement by Minister Atishi that there would be a possible water crisis in the city. She alleged that funds required to maintain the city’s water supply were not being released to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) at the behest of Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar.

Delhi government in the recent weeks has been going hammer and tongs against Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, who is credited with unearthing the liquor scam. Investigations into the scam has seen many an AAP leaders including a former Deputy Chief Minister and a sitting Member of Parliament cool heels in incarceration.

The Minister’s statement was countered the very next day by the Jal Board itself. A press release issued by the Jal Board’s public relations department said that the residents of the national Capital need not panic. Statement released by Jal Board’s Deputy Director (public relations) said, “… it is clarified that DJB does not expect or anticipate any such disruption in its services and DJB is fully geared up to meet its responsibilities towards the citizens of Delhi in so far as the regular supply of water and sewerage services are concerned.”

The wind is slowly picking speed, this would in the natural course clear smog in the national Capital region. The early morning checks on the improving air quality index (AQI) on your phones too is helping if not clear the cough in the chest and at least the smog in the mind. With the ‘chaath’ festivities, the NCR today is as much an abode of the Biharis as of the Punjabis, having concluded, the life should be back to normal in the city.

One of the indicators of situation turning normal are the pictures and statements of Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai getting turfed out of the newspaper pages. Rai has the onerous task of talking inanities to defend the indefensible culpability of his government in turning Delhi into a gas chamber for a month year-after-year.

Now that Rai is out, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has once again taken to the centre stage. With possibility of his arrest in the liquor scam case hanging like the Damocles’ Sword, he has got busy with brazen talk to keep his house in order and save his party from breaking.

In the first week of November Delhi woke up to the smog at its thickest for the season. The newspapers said that Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) stage III guidelines have been made operational and that a large number of vehicles would be going off the road as long as the guidelines remain operational.

The Delhi government at its end ‘discharged its responsibility and obligation’ by declaring holidays in the schools. The MLAs of the ruling party did their quota of levelling charges saying that the Delhi police stopped them in their fight against pollution. Seriously?

On the day they were protesting their party leader and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was away campaigning in Singrauli Madhya Pradesh. Worse, he was in the company of party leader and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. The poor state of air in Delhi, which is suffocating its residents, has largely been caused by stubble fire in the fields of Punjab.

On its part, the Punjab government has washed its hands of the blame that stubble burning in the state was cause for pollution in the national Capital and the adjoining areas. In a newspaper report last week, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) chief is reported to have said, “The NGT has already been informed about the standard operation procedure adopted by the Punjab government and PPCB to tackle stubble burning especially in the hotspot districts. However, the board and agriculture department have geared up to control any sort of situation in case the number of cases increase in coming days as the figures continue to fluctuate till November 30, when we get the final number of total cases.”

Ask somebody working with the Delhi government what’s happening, the reply more than often would be, “Doing Kar Sewa”. Now what’s doing Kar Sewa? More interestingly when did the word become part of the national vocabulary?

It was 1984, in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, that the word first became known outside Punjab. When the task to rebuild the portions of Golden Temple in Amritsar, which had got damaged during the operation to flush out terrorists, began, initiative was taken by a group of holy men to render ‘Kar Sewa’.

Kar Sewa, literally meaning voluntary service, is an integral part of Sikh religion. ‘Sarbat da Bhala’ meaning common good of all is one of the fundamental principles of the Sikhism. Thus voluntary service across the country for common good came to be called Kar Sewa.

However, over a period of time it also took a sarcastic hue, almost becoming a synonym for unrewarded work. That’s brings us to the context of Kar Sewa being done in the Delhi government. It started with the unpaid grants for the Delhi government funded Delhi University Colleges.

In the official files polluting times have begun in Delhi and the national capital region. Although it’s another matter that the morning walkers are still to feel the deteriorating air quality. This possibly because the onset of Diwali has been delayed this year.

Nevertheless, what’s nice to see is that the measures of controlling air pollution like spraying water among others have begun in the right earnest. The pollution control machinery this year thankfully has not waited for the quality measuring meters to turn red before start acting. What’s more wonderful is that nobody in the news headlines is running to take credit for the effort.

The credit for the efforts made so far should go to a rejuvenated Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in the national capital region. Led by a ‘battle hardened’ bureaucrat Dr MM Kutty, a former Secretary in union government, the CAQM was established in 2021 to address the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and the NCR. Since the past two years it has taken several important initiatives to combat winter air pollution.