Begin by fixing system, clean air will follow: Kiran Bedi pitches five reforms for pollution fight

Former IPS officer and former Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, called for basic but major institutional reforms to tackle India’s air pollution, saying the crisis “will not respond to half-measures” and requires institutions with “authority, clarity and staying power”.

In her blog titled “India Needs Five Reforms for Clean Air”, Ms. Bedi said the country needs to move from firefighting to systemic change.

“Fix the system and the air will come. India deserves institutions strong enough to deliver the most basic public good: breathable air,” he said.

The former LG said the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM) needs “leadership with real authority”.

Ms. Bedi said the commission was led by a retired official who, although experienced, lacked the administrative clout and political weight needed to change ministries and influence budgets. “A secretary-level officer can coordinate across states, negotiate with chief secretaries, and push for execution as quickly as the crisis demands,” he wrote.

Ms Bedi called for CAQM to be integrated into the Ministry of Environment, saying the agency currently operates alongside the ministry rather than within it.

“To create impact, it needs to become the operational engine of the MoEFCC, working on a daily basis with agriculture, energy, transport, industry and urban development,” he wrote, adding that clean air should be “a core function of governance and not a peripheral report-writing body.”

He also proposed creating a five-year “Clean Air Mission Fund” to provide stable, multi-year funding for monitoring networks, implementation teams, district clean air cells, scientific modeling and public health communications.

“Stable funding is what turns vision into results,” Ms. said. Bedi wrote.

On enforcement, he said the regulator needs its own team and asked CAQM to set up its own enforcement wing.

“A regulator without its own inspectorate is a regulator in name only,” he wrote, noting that the commission is currently under overstretched state agencies and should have a district-level power with the authority to inspect, punish and shut down violators.

Ms Bedi called for the establishment of a “National Council of Environment Ministers” chaired by MoEFCC to harmonize standards, coordinate fuel and transport reforms, manage cross-border pollution and ensure joint accountability among states.

He also called for a stronger digital backbone, proposing a “National Clean Air Data Center” that is AI-powered, real-time, and integrates industrial, vehicle, agricultural, meteorological, and satellite data to enable predictive governance rather than reactive responses.

Delhi-NCR grapples with high air pollution throughout the year and the problem worsens during winter months when adverse meteorological conditions coupled with increased vehicular emissions, paddy straw burning, firecrackers and other local sources of pollution make the air quality hazardous.

Delhi too falls victim to its own pollution throughout the year.

On December 1, the Supreme Court directed the central government and the CAQM to reconsider their action plan to combat air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region.

The court emphasized that air pollution cannot be viewed as a seasonal or short-term problem and asked the government to evaluate whether the measures taken so far are “effective, ineffective or only partially effective”.

Experts, environmental groups and petitioners have long argued that the Centre’s air pollution control plan, called GRAP, and other emergency restrictions cannot replace a long-term structural plan to address the underlying causes of Delhi’s chronic pollution.

It was published – 03 December 2025 12:20 IST