Srinagar, Jun 22 (KNS): Congress leader Kadfeen Choudhary on Thursday expressed serious concern over the deteriorating air quality in Srinagar, terming the inaction of the concerned authorities over the issue deeply worrying.

Kadfeen said that as the concerned departments are playing proverbial ostrich trying to undermine the glaring realities on ground, the people of Srinagar are getting seriously affected by the bad quality of air.

Kadfeen termed the recent media reports as eye opener in which it was stated that as per the Pollution Control Board (PCB) Air Quality Monitoring data of PM 2.5 concentration for the year 2018-2019 Jahangir Chowk near civil Secretariat tops with the yearly average of PM 2.5 level at 72.69 particulate matter per cubic meter of air, or µg/m3 against the permissible limit 40 µg/m3.

The reports, Kadfeen said, informed further that Soura near SKIMS ranked 2nd with PM 2.5 level touching 72.97µg/m3, followed by Boulevard near Dalgate 69.58µg/m3, Hyderpora (Parraypora) 67.24µg/m3 and Rajbagh 53.59 µg/m3.

Kadfeen demanded government’s inaction in this regard troublesome and said that it is ironic that more than 10 days have passed since the report came to the fore but no remedial action has been taken by the government.

He urged the concerned quarters to act without further delay so that the people of Srinagar already battling several odds could at least have safer air to breathe. (KNS)