In a vast and congested megalopolis like Delhi, it is anybody’s guess how much implementation can be done by a handful of civic staffers, who often have to be accompanied by Pollution Control Board officials.

In a vast and congested megalopolis like Delhi, it is anybody’s guess how much implementation can be done by a handful of civic staffers, who often have to be accompanied by Pollution Control Board officials.

In a vast and congested megalopolis like Delhi, it is anybody’s guess how much implementation can be done by a handful of civic staffers, who often have to be accompanied by Pollution Control Board officials.

Shakespeare might have loved it. This annual charade, or farce, or a comedy which is actually a tragedy: the by-now annual ritual of pollution control measures that are rolled out in India’s national capital region, and which—as the bard might have described—is all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Smartly acronymed GRAP, standing for Graded Response Action Plan, it is a one-size-fits-all which simply has no grip on the rising air quality index (AQI) levels, which on Diwali eve, was reported as above 400 (meaning ‘severe’) from some localities. The government’s median level was anyway a not-too-inspiring 368, ranging in the ‘very poor’ category.

This of course means GRAP’s third phase has been invoked, which include a ban on dust-generating non-essential construction, demolition, stone crushing and mining. While the civic bodies claim many challans have been issued and fines collected for non-compliance, the reality is out there for all to see.

In a vast and congested megalopolis like Delhi, not to forget its rapidly expanding satellite towns like Noida, Gurugram, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, it is anybody’s guess how much implementation can be done by a handful of civic staffers, who often have to be accompanied by Pollution Control Board officials.

For example, on Friday, the first day of GRAP-III (though limits on construction had come into effect more than two weeks ago with GRAP-I itself), a leading Delhi newspaper reported that three challans were issued by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Three for a city of 30 million people? It is but an open secret that constructions happily continue in various corners of the NCR—sometimes by greasing palms, sometimes without even bothering with it.

Interestingly, 2026 has seen the earliest imposition of GRAP—the first phase was put into effect as early as October 21. This year, offices in Delhi as well as Gurugram were told to mandatorily enforce 50 per cent work-from-home for a fortnight.

It is a no-brainer why various GRAP measures, despite all the publicity and talk over it, are absolute duds. And everyone from politicians to bureaucrats to pollution experts know it. Their biggest issue, is the very fact that they are neither preventive, nor curative.

The first—and the biggest issue—is that it is equivalent to shutting the stable doors after the horse has bolted.

Experts have argued for some time now that effective measures are needed not after the AQI has already shot up, but right during the formative phase—after the monsoon, after the harvest, and before the air gets thinner as temperature drops.

Second—and this is even tougher—is to have an all-of-government approach to tackle this slow killer that is impacting not just the national capital (even if it garners all the headlines), but a whole chunk of northern India.

So far, this has been acutely missing, with civic bodies or state governments or research bodies chipping in with their two bits sporadically.

Right from what are the reasons (including geographically, considering how the Himalayas form a ‘wall’ on three sides of the Gangetic Plain turning it into a gas chamber of sorts) and of course, what could be done realistically, as a multi-year mission.

But then, such an earnest effort might just force the government to face up to touchy topics like how its push for growth and development comes at the cost of the health of a large chunk of its populace, and how tackling pollution might need facing up to bringing in controls on anything from vehicles to industrial activity to construction—all GDP drivers, you see.

Token remedies, then, like restricting older vehicles, half-hearted advisories on Diwali crackers (if it is so bad then why is its production never halted?) and stopping construction—all in various phases of GRAP being rolled out at regular gaps, almost like new episodes dropping of a dystopian OTT show—is the easy way out.

It is then that everybody from politicians to bureaucrats can claim they did their job, and go back home to switch on their air purifiers.

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