December 28, 2017
Derek O’Brien speaks during a Short Duration Discussion on rising levels of air pollution in Delhi
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, thank you very much. I hope you will not look at the time today, because this is my maiden speech in my new term. Before I begin, I must thank and acknowledge my party – the Trinamool Congress – and its leader Mamata Di for reposing the faith to have me re-elected again and to be back in this House for another term.
Sir, this issue today is very important, no doubt about it. Last week we had a short duration discussion listed on sport. My appeal to you, Sir, through the Chairman, is that next week we have one short duration discussion left and important as this issue is, of pollution in Delhi, we need to get an issue like farmer distress listed for discussion in the Rajya Sabha. Sport is important, pollution is important, jobs are important, the economy is in a mess, that is important. There are so many issues but one of these other three issues must be taken up. A lot of parties have submitted notices and it is my humble appeal to the Chair to take up one of these issues: jobs, the economy or farmer distress.
Sir, let me cite four or five broad numbers just to illustrate the point. Then I want to to talk a little about the causes of pollution and try and get a better understanding about it. Then I will make two or three suggestions on policy intervention and finally conclude by offering two or three best practices which are being practiced by some other States and maybe the Minister would consider it.
Sir, the first one of the broad issues, and the numbers are very scary. Sir it is not about this government or the last government. It is an ongoing problem for many decades. Sir, the population of Ireland or the population of Palestine is equivalent to the people who die of indoor air pollution in the world. So there are basically two broad aspects to pollution and we have to address both these aspects. One is the indoor air pollution and the outdoor air pollution.
I’ll give you these numbers Sir, in fact the outdoor air pollution effects less people in the world: about 37 lakh people. Indoor air pollution is also a huge killer. The second figure which is alarming is, if you look at the 2013 World Bank Report and if you look at environmental degradation they say 5.7% of GDP is lost because of this environmental degradation. Sir, think of that number. 5.7% of the GDP would mean the total health contribution and the total education contribution – which are under 6% of GDP, Sir. That is the second scary number.
Sir, out of 37 lakh people in the world who have premature deaths because of COPD and asthma, 25 lakh are Indian. And Sir, one of the speakers mentioned quality of the index. One in two Indians live in areas that exceed the index which we call the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Sir, these are some very scary numbers.
Sir, I wish to highlight some of the causes so that we can look for some solutions. The first thing I want to table in the House is two major causes for indoor pollution. The point we are making here is that indoor pollution is a bigger killer than outdoor pollution. And in all the studies which have been done, either through NGOs or through IIT Kanpur and other groups, there are two killers for indoor pollution.
The first big killer, Sir, is – believe it or not – the mosquito coil. So where there are mosquitoes, obviously in the poorer areas, you burn more mosquito coils; thus, COPD cases go up, asthma cases go up. This is the first one. And the second, which we all know is often used for good reasons for religious purposes. We all use it in Hinduism, in Christianity, in Sikhism. It is what we call in Bangla the dhoop or agarbatti. That also is a big killer. So we need to address these two issues on indoor pollution.
Sir, let us come to the issue of outdoor pollution. The causes, Sir, are four and we need to address all four. Sir, 1200 cars in Delhi are registered everyday. If you take 1200 cars you can fill the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. So, the first cause, Sir, is more private transport, as many have suggested.
Sir, the second, more obvious one for outdoor pollution, which I think the member from the BJP addressed, in his opening speech and you need to look that way through, is the over dependence on coal and the faster we move away from that.
The third one Sir, is industrialisation, and we need to be very very strict, Sir, with imposing these rules – whether it is for industrial clusters, whether it is for restaurants, whether it is for thermal power plants. So these are the issues Sir.
Sir, for the policy interventions, very quickly, I want to provide three phases. Sir we need to look at all forms of pollution, not restrict ourselves to one form of pollution. Second, Sir, why only Delhi? We need to look at the other metropolitan cities, we need to look at the smaller towns. And for policy interventions Sir, we need to develop a Quality Information System. These are policy interventions which will have long term solutions.
Sir, for good practice, I want to give you three or four examples – one or maybe two from my State. We have a scheme which we started two years ago called ‘Sabuj Shree’ which simply means (because you need more green) every time a girl is born in Bengal, a sapling is planted. Now you may say, why discriminate against the boys, it’s not that, we hope to include the boys also. So 15 lakh saplings are planted every year because it’s linked to the birth of a child. So, that’s one way to increase the greenery.
Sir, the second one Sir, in Bengal, is the Green University Bill, which was passed in the Assembly in October-November 2017 and the West Bengal Green University is being set up to be a centre for excellence – a centre for learning, so more research can be done in these fields.
So these were two examples from Bengal. Then of course, Sir, I can give one example from Delhi – over the last one year plantation has increased by 1%, maybe 0.9%. During Diwali, there was also the “Say No to Crackers” campaign.
Sir, I want to end, by sharing with you Sir, a statistic which will make all of us really stand up and take notice. This is not from some little village hospital. This is from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. In 2005, the number of patients who were admitted into the respiratory ward was 5020. Sir, that figure in 2015 (I don’t have the figures for 2017), was 37,000 in the same respiratory ward.
Sir, I would conclude, by appealing to you, Sir, as I said, to take up another short duration discussion next week. Sir, in all humility, I want to appeal to this government, through you Sir, not to choke the Chief Minister of Delhi and allow him to do his work. In a bid to try and choke him, do not end up choking the children of Delhi.
Thank You, Sir.
