How experts responded to Delhi’s pollution action plan
New Delhi: Environmental experts on Friday welcomed the 15-point winter action plan announced by the Delhi government to combat the annual crisis in the national capital while seeking more focus on enforcement of anti-pollution rules on the ground and citizen engagement
New Delhi: Environmental experts on Friday welcomed the 15-point winter action plan announced by the Delhi government to combat the annual crisis in the national capital while seeking more focus on enforcement of anti-pollution rules on the ground and citizen engagement.
“The plan hits the right chords in terms of identifying sector-specific measures, use of forecasts and engaging citizens,” said Tanushree Ganguly, Programme Lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) .
“In addition to leveraging complaints and inputs from Paryavaran Mitras, dedicated field teams that have been constituted for checking solid waste burning can also double up as inspection teams for other sources like non-compliant construction sites and industrial units,” Ganguly added . She also said that the government should look at working with Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) to arrange cleaner heating alternatives for security guards, which is part of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).
Ganguly said besides addressing local issues, the plan should focus on resolving inter-state problems such as stubble burning. “With the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) being in power in both Delhi and Punjab, it provides and opportunity for the two state governments to work closely on reducing stubble fires,” she said.
Bhargav Krishna, Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), was of the view that the plan 15-point plan has failed to list “long-term structural changes” that are required to curb pollution in Delhi-NCR .
“Investing more and more money in smog towers and anti-smog guns is a waste of public money. Stubble burning remains the big challenge, and addressing this issue in the long-term requires investment in helping farmers transition from burning paddy residue in Punjab. Being in power in both states provides the AAP a unique opportunity to solve this problem,” said Krishna.
Bharati Chaturvedi, Founder and Director of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, said the government must promote and encourage use of public transport to curb emissions by private cars as well as decongest road arteries.
“The actions in the plan are mainly ad-hoc in nature and not systemic. Winter is a critical period for air pollution, and we would have liked to see more action on the transport front. For example, reducing fares for Delhi Metro during winters to encourage ridership, introducing additional buses, preferably electric. The chief minister could have also appealed to parents to use school buses instead of private cars to sent their children to schools,” said Chaturvedi.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said it is difficult to predict how air pollution pans out this winter with several factors such as withdrawal of monsoon, an early Diwali and the response of farmers to crop burning all playing their role in addition with the meteorological conditions.
“To counter this, a new forecasting system is in place which will lead to pre-emptive action, and this time of Grap’s focus is dust, waste and crop burning. The impact of the proposed winter action plan will depend on the efficacy of enforcement as well as the infrastructure developed so far to control these problems,” she said.
Roychowdhury added that “action around vehicles” appears to be limited, even though vehicular emissions contribute to half of particulate pollution during winters “as estimated by the decision support system last winter”.