Gopal Rai holds meeting over action plan to check pollution during Delhi winter

“Each agency has been tasked to formulate their own action plan, which needs to be submitted by September 21. Based on these individual plans, a holistic winter action plan will be released by September 30,” Rai said

Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday conducted a meeting of various agencies in the Capital, to set targets for the upcoming winter season when pollution levels in the city spike. Based on individual targets, a holistic winter action plan will be released by the government by September 30, to ensure that pollution sources in Delhi are kept in check in the coming season, Rai said.

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai. (File photo)

Addressing a press conference Rai said that each of the departments in the city were assigned tasks to control and manage various pollution sources that tend to aggravate during winters. Representatives from the three corporations (north, south and east), Delhi Pollution Control Committee, environment department, transport department, traffic police, Public Works Department (PWD), Delhi Development Authority, etc attended in the meeting.

“Each agency has been tasked to formulate their own action plan, which needs to be submitted by September 21. Based on these individual plans, a holistic winter action plan will be released by September 30,” Rai said.

He added that the environment department will be the nodal agency, which will coordinate with all other agencies to ensure that the assigned tasks are completed within deadlines.

Explaining what tasks each agency would have to undertake, Rai said, “The work of controlling garbage burning has been assigned to the municipalities. They will have to come up with a plan to ensure that this garbage reaches the dedicated sites.”

Similarly, he said, the Delhi Traffic Police have also been asked to come up with congestion hot spots and also take up the task of repairing traffic signals.

“Traffic jams lead to pollution. We have asked the traffic department to make a list of the congestion hot spots and try to come up with solutions to fix them.”

Rai also said that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has also sought a meeting with the Union environment minister to discuss the contribution of pollution from neighbouring states.