Happy Weekend Chembur Family
Chembur is known for many things. Clean air should be one of them.
Slipping into the “poor” AQI category again and again is a public failure we’ve learned to tolerate. With BMC elections around the corner, this is the moment residents actually have leverage. This edition has one clear message. Demand an AQI Action Plan from every BMC contender. Vote for the one who has a real roadmap.
Why this matters now?
Every election season comes with promises about roads, cleanliness, and development. But air quality, the thing we literally breathe every day, is rarely addressed with seriousness. Recent reports show Chembur’s air quality worsening even as temperatures drop. If candidates don’t have a plan for air quality now, they won’t magically develop one later.
What you should do? One simple rule.
When candidates come asking for your vote, ask them just this: “What is your AQI Action Plan?” Not slogans. Not concern. A plan.
What a corporator can actually do?
A corporator cannot shut down the RCF, obviously. But they are not powerless either. A serious corporator can:
Push the BMC administration to conduct regular ward-level inspections
Demand action on garbage burning, construction dust, and local pollution sources
Force air quality issues into official BMC meetings and records
Coordinate with MPCB and the Environment Department for joint inspections
Push for AQI monitors, green buffers, and ward-level environmental projects
Use ward funds and political pressure to prioritise public health issues
If a candidate says they have no role in air quality, they’re choosing not to use the tools they already have.
Vote for the candidate who can clearly answer:
What are the main pollution sources they will act on
What immediate steps they will push for
What long-term measures they support
How they will hold agencies accountable
If they can’t answer this clearly, they’re not prioritising your health.
What an AQI Action Plan should include?
Industrial and emission monitoring
Garbage burning enforcement
Construction dust control
Local air quality monitoring
Long-term green buffers or urban forests
No plan. No vote. It’s that simple.
Bottomline
Elections are one of the few times, we the citizens have real power. Let's use it wisely.
Let’s vote for our fundamental right to clean air.