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Free doorstep delivery of potted plants soon in Delhi
The Delhi forest department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will launch a pilot project to deliver small plants and potted plants to people's doorsteps free of cost. The move aims to make Delhi greener, with a ward-wise survey to begin soon. The project is still in the early stages, and the modalities of doorstep delivery will be discussed in the coming weeks. The Delhi government distributes a segment of saplings free of cost each year through its nurseries, but no doorstep delivery takes place.
With distribution of free saplings already taking place in the nation capital, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said a pilot project will be launched soon where saplings and small-potted plants will be delivered to people’s doorsteps. The project will be undertaken by the forest department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Rai said.
“The forest department and the MCD will soon launch a pilot project where we will provide small plants and potted plants at the doorstep, free of cost. For this, a ward-wise survey will begin soon. So far, we have carried out a survey only in my constituency of Babarpur, where people were asked about their species of preference,” Rai said on Wednesday, adding that this will help make Delhi greener.
The Delhi government distributes a segment of saplings free of cost each year through its 14 government nurseries. However, no doorstep delivery takes place. The government had attempted something similar in 2019, when Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced doorstep delivery of saplings through a helpline number. However, the move never took off, largely due to manpower shortage in the forest department.
When contacted, a forest department official said the plan was still in the early stages and the modalities of doorstep delivery will be discussed in the coming weeks.
Rai also took a review meeting on Wednesday with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), the environment department and IIT Kanpur. During the meeting, he said htat while the supersite established by the government at Pandara road in January was already giving accurate data in terms of the sources of pollution, there was a need to expand beyond that location.
“Moving forward in this series, five molecular markers have already been installed to get information about the main factors that lead to increased pollution at hotspots. Presently this network has been established in Delhi’s Dwarka, Jahangirpuri, Vivek Vihar, Mundka and Anand Vihar. Along with this, orders have also been issued to install mobile air quality monitoring vans at the 13 pollution hotspots of Delhi, which will allow us to trace the sources of pollution in real time,” Rai said.
Rai also said that a ‘Save Environment’ roundtable conference has been planned for May 15 which will look at further ideation on improving Delhi’s real-time source apportionment. For this, representatives from the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), IMD, World Bank, Safar, along with organisations like The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) among others will take part.
“These representatives will be taken to the supersite after the conference and a joint action plan will be formed based on the recommendations from all institutions, states and study results,” Rai added.
