Licypriya Kangujam, a nine-year-old and Aarav Seth, a 12-year-old were climate activists were peacefully demonstrating near Parliament House.
I and @LicypriyaK were simply protesting on the road sides because of the inaction of our leaders on the ongoing #DelhiAirPollutionCrisis. Now they have released us at Jantar Mantar. Initially they tried to take me with @LicypriyaK to Parliament Street Police Station. pic.twitter.com/13sKYVgmt6
— AaravSeth 🌏🌏 #EarthWarrior 🌲 🌲 (@AaravSeth888) October 18, 2020
Licypriya Kangujam, a nine-year-old and Aarav Seth, a 12-year-old were detained by Delhi Police outside Parliament House. They were detained for protesting against air pollution in Delhi.
On the way to meet @ArvindKejriwal Sir and Vijay Chowk demonstration at 1.30 pm. ♥️🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/EbVYkWTTnr
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 18, 2020
Kangujam’s Twitter account is managed by her guardians. According to The Twitter account, the police had detained them for 40 minutes and also called in Central Industrial Security Force personnel to take the protesters.
When they did not know the whereabouts of Kangujam and came to know that she was taken to an unspecified location in a police vehicle, a tweet from her handle said, “They took her somewhere but we couldn’t trace her.”
Later on, Kangujam said that the police had initially taken them to the Parliament Street Police Station, but later released them at Jantar Mantar
Kangujam said that the police warned her to abstain from demonstrations, else she would be arrested the next time. Kangujam said, “I appreciate all the police personnel for treating me like as a daughter except 2-3 who warned me not to protest again at the same place.”
Kangujam said that her only mistake was that she protested in the most highly restricted security zone of India.
Kangujam called it “illegal detention“, She questioned, “Under what law, how a nine years old kid can be arrested or detained?”.
“But I will go & protest again. This is my right to raise the voice to give us clean air to breathe. If I don’t tell to our leaders then to whom I should tell? My demand is for them too,” Kangujam added in a tweet and stared protesting against air pollution.
We were simply protest on the road sides because of the inaction of our leaders on the ongoing #DelhiAirPollutionCrisis. Now released us at Jantar Mantar. Initially they tried to took me with @AaravSeth888 to Parliament Street Police Station. pic.twitter.com/u8TJmZPzYu
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) October 18, 2020
The air quality in national capital, usually declines in the winter. Unfortunately, it hit an eight-month low on Thursday with stubble burning accounting for only 6% of the city’s PM2.5 concentration, according to government agencies.
A 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) recorded of Delhi is 312. The last time the air quality hit such a poor level was in February with an AQI 320. The 24-hour average AQI was 276 on Wednesday, which falls in the ‘poor’ category. It was 300 on Tuesday, 261 on Monday, 216 on Sunday and 221 on Saturday.
The Centre has failed to control the air quality in Delhi, hence, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre last year in November. It said that “the whole of north India, NCR is suffering from the issue of air pollution.” The authorities were lashed for alleged inaction by the apex court.
A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra questioned the centre, “Can you permit people to die like this due to pollution? Can you permit the country to go back by 100 years?”
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