"Delhi is not a livable city any more, it's a death trap, said Radhika Aggarwal, 33, an engineer who joined the protest on Sunday. As I stand here, I'm breathing air that I know is killing me. But we see nothing but a failure by the government to do anything to stop this and clean up the pollution. No policies, no real action. So I'm here to fight for my city."
"Pollution now kills more people in Delhi than obesity or diabetes. Life and death on India's toxic trash mountains video The seeming inevitability of the pollution, and the failure by successive state governments to do anything about it, means it has often been met with apathy by residents. But on Sunday, as a rare protest against the increasingly woeful air quality erupted in the Delhi's political centre, anger and frustration were rife."
"The call for Sunday's protest had been to gather at India Gate, the country's famed memorial to its fallen martyrs. But in the days prior to the protest, the police had made hundreds of calls and homes visits to those amplifying the protest to pressure them to call it off, even threatening legal action against them; the latest crackdown on any form of dissent in India."
Smoky haze settled over Delhi as hundreds assembled to demand the right to breathe safely. Families, students, retirees and environmentalists gathered at India Gate. Radhika Aggarwal, 33, an engineer, said Delhi is not livable and that she feared the air was killing her, accusing the government of failing to clean up pollution or enact policies. Delhi has been the world's most polluted city for a decade, with seasonal smog from October lasting months and AQI readings far above safe levels. Pollution now kills more people than obesity or diabetes. Police pressured organisers and threatened legal action amid a wider crackdown on dissent.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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