Delhi govt comes up with five-point plan to combat local sources of pollution
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday announced a five-point plan to provide some relief from the high-pollution levels prevailing over the Capital
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday announced a five-point plan to provide some relief from the high-pollution levels prevailing over the Capital. Government officials said that the five-point plan has been chalked out based on the four key sources of pollution affecting Delhi--dust, vehicular emissions, burning of waste and pollution from landfills, and stubble burning.
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday announced a five-point plan to provide some relief from the high-pollution levels prevailing over the Capital. Government officials said that the five-point plan has been chalked out based on the four key sources of pollution affecting Delhi--dust, vehicular emissions, burning of waste and pollution from landfills, and stubble burning.
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Rai said an emergency meeting was held around 12 noon on Tuesday with government departments and agencies, including the three municipal corporations, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to discuss measures to control the four sources of pollution.
“While we know it is not in our hands to control stubble burning, which is polluting Delhi, we can stop open burning within Delhi and for this, an anti-open burning campaign will be held for a month from November 11. This is a joint campaign in which ten different departments, including the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, three municipal corporations and the DDA, will form their respective teams and monitor open burning. So far, 550 teams have been formed, of which 246 will conduct patrolling at night,” said Rai asking people to report instances of open burning of waste through the Green Delhi app.
The minister said to tackle dust, directions have been issued to all departments to start phase two of the anti-dust campaign, that will run from November 12 to December 12. All the departments have been asked to set up an anti-dust cell. “During the first phase of the anti-dust campaign that was held from October 7 to 29, DPCC teams inspected around 2,500 sites, of which 450 were fined ₹1.23 crore for not complying with norms. We are hoping that the second phase will be more successful with all departments joining in. We will also take daily reports from each anti-dust cell to keep a record of the work being done at the ground-level,” said Rai.
While directions were earlier issued to deploy 114 water tankers to control dust pollution, Rai said the government’s water sprinkling drive will be intensified by deploying 400 water tankers. Earlier, while only the public works department was carrying out this exercise, now the three civic corporations, the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (DSIIDC) and the Delhi Cantonment board have also been asked to spray water on Delhi’s roads.
The other measures include strict implementation of the directions mentioned in the graded response action plan (Grap), which includes a ban on diesel generator sets, stopping the use of coal-based tandoors at eateries and intensifying the use of public transport services.
Directions have also been issued to spray bio-decomposer solution over 4,000 acres of farmland in Delhi. Rai added while the solution--prepared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute-- has been sprayed on 2,300 acres of farmland, the remaining 1,700 acres will be sprayed with the solution by November 20.
Tanushree Ganguly, programme lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said the announcement shows that the government is taking measures to ensure better coordination between different agencies responsible for managing and regulating pollution from local sources. However, she said the government also needs to look at vehicular emissions.
“Vehicular emissions constitute about 17-40% of Delhi’s PM 2.5 emissions. The government should not wait for the air quality to go beyond severe levels to impose restrictions. Reducing vehicular load will not only impact vehicular emissions but also reduce dust in the air,” she said.