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Sabotage

  • 29/09/2001

Sabotage The past five months have been incredible. When we launched our campaign for clean air in 1996, with the publication of the book, Slow Murder , we had no idea that we were entering into a realm of high intrigue and deception. In all our years of public work, we had never seen such powerful vested interests at work, and indeed the lengths and depths they are prepared to go to compromise public health.

The one thrill is that we have achieved what we set out to do, at least to some extent. The air of Delhi is cleaner. People can feel the difference. It is not that pollution levels have dropped dramatically, but that we have stemmed the rot and stabilised pollution. Delhi has added over 200,000 vehicles in the last year itself and it has more vehicles than Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai put together. But the capital's pollution levels are coming down unlike the other cities, which are choking and wheezing because of unhealthy air.

The saga of saboteurs has been fascinating learning. When we published our cover story

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