Delhi pollution: Of over 700 complaints, only 200 addressed so far

Central Pollution Control Board allows the Delhi residents to file pollution-related complaints -- such as garbage dumping, open fires, dumping of construction waste, and road dust -- either on their official website or the Sameer portal.

Out of 733 pollution-related complaints registered with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) over a 28-day period, only 229 have been redressed by various government agencies, according to a review by the pollution control body that highlights the lack of robustness in Delhi’s response to its annual bad air crisis.

Delhi’s air stayed in the very poor zone on Thursday, despite the contribution of farm fires dipping to 2%. So far only meteorological factors have helped clean city’s air. (AP)

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation topped the list of agencies that recorded the most unresolved complaints -- 105 out of 126 for an 83% pendency. It was followed by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (112 unresolved out of 140) with 80% pendency, while the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and the Delhi Development Authority had resolved only one out of four and nine of 35 complaints they respectively received.

The two corporations are ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, and NDMC and DDA are agencies under the aegis of Union government.

Status of complaints

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was lagging too, having resolved only one of the six complaints it received. And so were the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), which redressed one of the five complaints forwarded to it, and the Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIDC), which addressed 21 of 36 complaints. DJB, DPCC and DSIIDC come under the Delhi government.

The data from the CPCB review for complaints registered between October 20 and November 17 was accessed by HT. Across the city, 504 (or 68%) complaints were still pending across multiple agencies.

Delhi Traffic Police, with 13 out of 18 complaints resolved, was among the better performers on this parameter, and the state Public Works Department led the pack with 22 out of 29 complaints resolved.

CPCB allows the Delhi residents to file pollution-related complaints -- such as garbage dumping, open fires, dumping of construction waste, and road dust -- either on their official website or through their online redressal portal Sameer, which was launched in 2018.

Complainants can upload pictures of violations in their localities, giving a description of the area. After assessing the credibility of the complaint, the pollution monitoring body assigns it to various agencies that are responsible for addressing that particular issue.

“The pollution complaints that are logged with CPCB are first reviewed and then forwarded to the agencies concerned for action. Every day we conduct a review to assess the action taken. If complaints are pending for a long duration then we follow it up with the agencies concerned,” said a senior CPCB.

Since a day after Diwali, when Delhi’s air entered the severe zone for the first time this season, the air quality has remained in the dangerous range for several days. It was only after at least a week of the city breathing toxic air that the CAQM on the intervention of the Supreme Court issued a set of directions to the governments of Delhi-NCR, which included the shutting down of schools, banning of trucks inside Delhi and ban on construction activities.

When contacted, Jogi Ram Jain, the chairperson of the north corporation standing committee, said the civic body has deployed its maximum staff strength for pollution control this season.

“I cannot say for sure about why the pendency of complaints is so high, but we have made dedicated teams that are on-ground even at night. They keep a watch on cases of open fires. During the day, our teams ensure that water sprinkling is done on all our roads and mechanical sweeping is also being regularly carried out,” Jain said.

A senior PWD official said they were following the directions issued by the state government to control pollution at their construction sites. He said they were prioritising pollution-related complaints, and have given deadlines to their teams to ensure that they were resolved on time.

“Pollution control is our priority. Even within the department we have fixed accountability so that complaints are resolved as soon as possible,” the official said.

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “Fixing responsible is a must when we are dealing with multiple agencies. The whole point of having a public redressal system is to ensure that action is taken against complaints and considering that most of your pollution related action is time sensitive, it is imperative that reviews are done.”