In response to the worsening smog in Delhi, Kiran Bedi has called for a ban on air purifiers in all government offices and official residences. She argues that when officials sit behind purified indoor air, shielded from the toxic outdoor environment, they lose touch with the gravity of the public-health emergency unfolding around them.

Bedi’s rationale is stark: “How will they breathe polluted air to know what happens?” she wrote on social media. She believes that such insulation dissuades officials from visiting polluted hotspots, doing on-ground inspections, and taking urgent corrective action — instead leaving them confined to sanitized offices.

As part of her broader anti-pollution strategy, she has urged a “feet-on-ground” approach: daily field visits by senior officers, district-level monitoring of pollution sources, and coordinated enforcement by environment, municipal, and transport agencies across the National Capital Region.

For Bedi, the ban on purifiers is not about punishment — but about empathy, accountability, and ensuring decision-makers “breathe the same air” as citizens if meaningful action on air quality is to follow.