Berges

As India braces for Delhi - Mumbai "pollution season" and accompanied protests (we can all predict this), do read my post below. Attached is a photo of Singapore in media some days ago. It seems their pollution level had gone to hazardous levels. Not because the well managed and clean city-state did any mistake, but because of Indonesia burning their forests. The fires of Indonesia themselves seem a little suspicious. They didn't happen naturally but were lit widely by humans - specifically companies. Right at a time when the wind will turn towards Singapore. So the Singapore govt is now taking some extreme steps like going after these culprit companies even if they are based outside Singapore. Good work by their govt. But here's what Indians need to understand. Delhi or Mumbai pollution getting worse at this time of the year is not because of automobile, not because of road dust, not because of construction activity as they are all always blamed. They do contribute their bit, but never as much as farm fires. Just like Singapore facing Indonesian farm and forest fires, Indian cities face farm fires lit by our Anna Datas in many provinces. The govt and local authorities are afraid of them. They have already been encouraged to use machines and compactors but they wont. If authorities go to tell them to use it, they may get violent and force the authorities to burn the farms themselves. Now what I feel is going on is some kind of deliberate burning at the right time, using wind direction, to cause pollution in Delhi and Mumbai. Just like Singapore is being hit with pollution from Indonesia by some companies. So people can protest all they want against Delhi and Mumbai govt in the coming months. They can imagine if they do a "regime change" this pollution issue will go away. But this pollution isn't going away until farm burning stops.