Air pollution levels remain dangerously high in many parts of the world with nine out of 10 people breathing air containing high levels of pollutants, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

It praised India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Scheme for providing some 37 million free liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections in the past two years that help promoting the use of clean household energy.

The WHO’s updated estimations reveal around 90 per cent of people worldwide breathe polluted air and an alarming death toll of seven million people every year caused by ambient (outdoor) and household air pollution.

“Air pollution threatens us all, but the poorest and most marginalized people bear the brunt of the burden,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

“It is unacceptable that over three billion people — most of them women and children — are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes. If we don’t take urgent action on air pollution, we will never come close to achieving sustainable development.”

The UN body launched its latest data on air pollution levels for more than 4,000 cities in over 100 countries as well the estimated health effects from both ambient and household air pollution.

Air pollution represents the biggest environmental risk to health. Yet solutions exist and the data shows some countries have made substantial progress.

WHO estimates that around seven million people die every year from exposure to fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections, including pneumonia.

Ambient air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period.

More than 90 per cent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, followed by low and middle-income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region, Europe and the Americas.

Around three billion people — more than 40 per cent of the world’s population — still do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies in their homes, the main source of household air pollution.

WHO has been monitoring household air pollution for more than a decade and, while the rate of access to clean fuels and technologies is increasing everywhere, improvements are not even keeping pace with population growth in many parts of the world, particularly in sub Saharan Africa.

WHO recognises that air pollution is a critical risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), causing an estimated one-quarter (24 per cent) of all adult deaths from heart disease, 25 per cent from stroke, 43 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent from lung cancer.

More than 4,300 cities in 108 countries are now included in WHO’s ambient air quality database, making this the world’s most comprehensive database on ambient air pollution.

Since 2016, more than 1,000 additional cities have been added to WHO’s database which shows that more countries are measuring and taking action to reduce air pollution than ever before.

The database collects annual mean concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5).

PM2.5 includes pollutants, such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon, which pose the greatest risks to human health.

WHO air quality recommendations call for countries to reduce their air pollution to annual mean values of 20 Ig/m3 (for PM10) and 10 Ig/m3 (for PM25).

“Many of the world’s megacities exceed WHO’s guideline levels for air quality by more than five times, representing a major risk to people’s health,” said Maria Neira, Director of the Department of Public Health, Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, at WHO.

“We are seeing an acceleration of political interest in this global public health challenge. The increase in cities recording air pollution data reflects a commitment to air quality assessment and monitoring. Most of this increase has occurred in high-income countries, but we hope to see a similar scale-up of monitoring efforts worldwide.”

While the latest data show ambient air pollution levels are still dangerously high in most parts of the world, they also show some positive progress.

Countries are taking measures to tackle and reduce air pollution from particulate matter.

For example, in just two years, India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Scheme has provided some 37 million women living below the poverty line with free LPG connections to support them to switch to clean household energy use.

Likewise, Mexico City has committed to cleaner vehicle standards, including a move to soot-free buses and a ban on private diesel cars by 2025.

Janata Dal (Secular) chief HD Deve Gowda says he had offered to quit as an MP after Narendra Modi came to power, but was stopped from doing so by the PM himself. “I met him after the polls and offered to quit. Modi stopped me, saying that I am an elderly leader and must forget poll-time jibes,” says Gowda.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing him of not extending the Centre’s crop insurance scheme to Karnataka’s farmers. “I keep getting complaints regarding Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana from…
The Karnataka government was indifferent… it did not care about the benefits that a farmer can get from the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. If the state government was active during drought, it would have benefited farmers, but they did not do it,” he said. Hitting back,
the CM tweeted Karnataka was the first state to deploy IT to directly pay insurance into farmers’ account. “Sir, Govt of Karnataka paid 50% of the cost of the PM Fasal Beema Yojana. Ours is the only Govt in the country that has deployed IT to directly pay the insurance amount into farmers’ account. Also crop insurance is old UPA scheme So, have a heart & share credit where it is due (sic),” Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The Congress on Thursday complained to the Karnataka Police that the aircraft in which its party President Rahul Gandhi flew to Hubballi in the state earlier in the day suffered a snag mid-air.

“The aircraft on a special flight (VT-AVH) from New Delhi to Hubballi suffered serious malfunction and tilted heavily to one side during the course of the flight,” a party official and Gandhi’s aide Kaushal Vidyarthee said in the complaint.

The complaint, addressed to the state’s Director General Neelamani N. Raju, requested the state police chief to “ground” the aircraft at Hubballi and investigate its malfunction.

However, a Hubballi Police official told IANS over phone that no complaint has been received by the local police station on the issue so far.

The complaint letter, also shared by the Congress through its official Twitter handle, however, does not mention the exact make of the aircraft the Congress President flew in and whose it was.

According to the letter, there were a total of three other passengers in the aircraft besides Gandhi and the complainant Vidyarthee — Rampreet, Rahul Ravi and Special Protection Group officer Rahul Gautam.

Alleging the aircraft’s auto-pilot mode was not functional and the aircraft could be landed only after two unsuccessful tries as it was “shaking and making unusual audible sounds”, the letter pointed to a possible “intentional tampering” with the aircraft’s functioning.

“The technical snags coupled with the failed auto-pilot system raise issues of aviation safety and intentional tampering which endangered the life of the passengers,” it added.

Gandhi arrived at Hubballi airport at around 11.25 a.m. on Thursday on a two-day visit to the poll-bound state to launch the party’s campaign for the May 12 legislative assembly elections in the coastal region.

In New Delhi, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that demanded a thorough investigation into the “serious case of aviation mechanics failure”, including the possibility of a “foul play”.

“Today Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other passengers were travelling by special flight from Delhi to Hubli. At about 10:45 am, the auto-pilot was lost off the flight. The flight tilted on one side and took a nosedive.

“For a few minutes, this special flight was off-the-radar. There was a lot of shuddering, although the weather outside was normal and sunny. On the third attempt, the flight finally landed at Hubli,” he said.

“It was then informed that the auto-pilot had failed, also the radars of the flight had partially failed.”

Surjewala also pointed out that usually when an SPG protectee is travelling, the complete details of the pilotsand the aircraft are submitted to the DGCA and the SPG.

“Only when all of these are cleared, then the flight plan is okayed. This is a serious case of aviation mechanics failure.

Members of the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra are the top 10 performers of the 16th Lok Sabha up to the recently concluded budget session, K. Srinivasan, Founder, Prime Point Foundation, said on Tuesday.

The Foundation has been awarding top performing members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha with the Sansad Ratna Award since 2010.

“The top 10 performers based on the cumulative score — of questions asked, initiated debates and private member bills introduced during the 16th Lok Sabha up to the budget session 2018 — are all from Maharashtra,” Srinivasan told IANS, citing data from the PRS Legislative Research.

According to him, the top three Lok Sabha MPs who have performed well are Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party (total score 1,073 – initiated debates 74, private member bills 16, questions 983); Shrirang Appa Barne, Shiv Sena (1,050-initiated debates 102, private member bills 16, questions 932); and Rajeev Shankarrao Satav, Congress (1,031-initiated debates 97, private member bills 15, questions 919).

In terms of questions raised by the 46 MPs from Maharashtra, Srinivasan said, they raised 22,705 questions out of 122,723 questions raised in the Lok Sabha by all MPs of the 16th Lok Sabha up to the budget session this year.

Following the Maharashtra members of Lok Sabha were 38 MPs from Tamil Nadu who raised 13,950 questions, and 76 MPs from Uttar Pradesh who raised 11,268 questions in the 16th Lok Sabha up to the budget session 2018, said Srinivasan citing PRS Legislative Research data.

In a major relief to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and ex-Minister Eknath Khadse, the Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) gave him a clean chit in an alleged land scam, official sources said on Tuesday.

The ACB filed its final report in a court here to say that the allegations of “misuse of power and position as Minister” in the Bhosari MIDC land deal have not been proved.

It said the contention that the state suffered a huge revenue loss in the purported deal was also not proved.

The most senior state BJP leader, Khadse lost ministership in June 2016 following a complaint lodged by former Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania.

Reacting to the development, Khadse reiterated on Tuesday that he had done no wrong and that the case was without basis or merit.

“The allegations against me were levelled with malicious intent. They have been proved false. Those who levelled charges against me have fallen flat on their faces. I don’t want to discuss how some people very close to me betrayed me, but I will continue to work in the same spirit as before,” Khadse told media persons in Mumbai.

On his re-induction in the Cabinet by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, he said: “I will abide by whatever decision the party takes.”

Damania said she would challenge the ACB clean in the Bombay High Court.

“This is how the BJP saves their corrupt ministers. I had given all proof in the Bhosari land (deal) to the ACB in August 2017,” Damania said.

On January 25, a peeved Khadse attended a Congress function and demanded from the BJP leadership as to what corruption he had indulged in and how much wealth he had accumulated so far even as several Congress leaders tried to get him into the party fold.

Later speaking in the party public meeting at Santemarahalli in Chamrajnagar district he expressed confidence that the BJP will form government on its own as the Congress will be reduced to a mere 55-60 seats at the most.

The party workers are facing hardships from the state government and policemen.But we will not tolerate if the party workers are stopped from attending the public rallies of the Prime Minister,warned the BJP leader.

Referring to the Nota campaign in Varuna constituency of Mysuru city where Dr Yathindra,son of chief minister Siddaramaiah is contesting he said:It’s all the misinformation campaign by the Congress party. BJP volunteers shouldn’t be carried away by such tricks of the Congress party.BY Vijayendra is not contesting from there under special circumstances and he’ll get opportunities to contest later

It may be recalled here that BY Vijayendra,son of BS Yeddyurappa had rented out a house in Varuna constituency in order to contest from there.He had even canvassed for himself much before the tickets were finalised.However he failed to bag the party ticket.

But the BJP workers who were jubilant over the activities of BY Vijayendra were taken aback when the party declared the ticket to a relatively less known face.Now they are up in arms against the decision of the party high command.

They vandalised the party office furniture some time back and also took the party’s official candidate for a ride.He’s reprimanded for agreeing to contest instead of allowing BY Vijayendra to contest.Now they have been campaigning to exercise Nota option instead of voting for the BJP candidate.

Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti