New Delhi, November 29, 2025: Former IPS officer and ex-BJP CM face in Delhi, Kiran Bedi, on Saturday voiced a sharp critique of how the capital’s worsening air quality is being addressed, calling it a “public-health emergency” and urging authorities to shift from office-bound decision-making to field-based governance. Her intervention comes a day after she made a direct appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to personally supervise measures to curb pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

In her message to the Prime Minister, Bedi highlighted Modi’s leadership style during her tenure as Puducherry’s Lieutenant Governor. She wrote, “Sir please forgive me for pleading again. But I have seen your very effective Zoom sessions during my time in Puducherry. How you got everybody to deliver and perform time-bound in several national challenges. How everyone was inspired to meet the deadlines and the goals.” She emphasized that the Prime Minister’s involvement would reassure citizens and add urgency to pollution-control measures.

Bedi used her X (formerly Twitter) profile to outline the systemic failures underlying Delhi’s air crisis, which she argued is the cumulative result of decades without coordinated governance. “The nation’s air-pollution crisis is not an accident of the present; it is the outcome of decades without true coordination in governance,” she wrote. She called for a “full reset toward collaborative administration,” urging authorities to shift from assigning blame to implementing actionable solutions with conscientious commitment.

Field Presence Over Remote Governance

A central theme in Bedi’s commentary was the need for leaders to directly experience the problem they aim to solve. “Best sensitisation is to come out daily, in the field, under the open skies, and breathe the air… Cardinal Rule is to come out daily from sanitised enclosures. And walk the streets. (Not drive).. Every walk will compel expeditious action,” she wrote. The ex-police officer stressed that governance cannot be remote-controlled, as critical issues like pollution require hands-on, visible leadership.

Her posts emphasized that daily field engagement by officials could compel faster corrective action and improve citizen confidence in administrative interventions. She suggested town halls, real-time inspections, and a culture where administrators actively “see, feel, and correct” conditions rather than relying solely on reports and meetings.

Delhi’s Air Quality: A Persistent Crisis

Delhi’s air quality has remained in the “very poor” category for much of November, with three days exceeding the “severe” threshold of AQI 400. On Saturday, the AQI registered 316, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s Sameer app, indicating continued risk to public health. Forecasts showed little immediate improvement for the coming week.

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) recently faced criticism after revoking Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), even as the 24-hour AQI soared to 377 on Thursday. The CAQM subcommittee had not convened a GRAP meeting, expecting conditions to improve the next day—a decision that drew scrutiny amid worsening air quality.

Bedi’s Blueprint for Anti-Pollution Action

In a detailed outline she called a “considered responsibility plan,” Bedi proposed a multi-tier governance frameworkto tackle pollution:

• MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change): Enforce national standards and fuel regulations.
• CAQM: Ensure uniform directives across the NCR.
• PMO: Align key ministries and coordinate national-level interventions.
• State Chief Ministers/Chief Secretaries/DGPs: Drive enforcement on the ground.
• District Magistrates: Lead daily field execution.
• Municipal Bodies, Police, Pollution Boards: Manage waste, dust, traffic, and industrial compliance.

She urged that every agency must perform with leadership, visibility, consistency, and coordination to effectively control air pollution in Delhi and NCR. Bedi’s approach combines top-level coordination with ground-level accountability, emphasizing that solutions cannot be delivered solely through directives from office rooms but must be felt and implemented on the streets where people live.

Leadership, Visibility, and Citizen Trust

Bedi’s posts repeatedly highlighted the importance of visible leadership in generating citizen trust. She argued that remote governance creates a disconnect between authorities and citizens, reducing accountability and delaying action. By stepping out into the field, officials would not only better understand the severity of the problem but also signal urgency to both industrial and residential stakeholders.

She cited remarks by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, who had questioned the efficacy of judicial directives in tackling systemic issues like air pollution, emphasizing the need for administrative leadership to be proactive.

Bedi’s plan underscores her belief that effective governance is as much about presence as it is about policy, advocating a shift from desk-bound administration to an action-oriented, citizen-focused approach that combines technology, monitoring, and accountability.

As Delhi continues to struggle with hazardous air quality, her call for direct, field-based governance presents a stark contrast to the current, largely reactive approach. With the NCR region facing increasingly severe pollution episodes, Bedi’s blueprint offers a roadmap emphasizing coordinated leadership, real-time monitoring, and community engagement, aimed at restoring both air quality and public confidence.