E-Paper
Delhi govt to review GRAP measures to curb pollution, meeting on Monday
The Supreme Court-mandated Environment pollution (prevention and control) Authority had, earlier this month, written to chief secretaries of all NCR states, including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, seeking time to review the measures under GRAP.
Ahead of winter when air quality dips to abysmal levels, the Delhi government is set to review measures under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) — to be implemented from mid-October — to curb toxic emissions. The Supreme Court-mandated Environment pollution (prevention and control) Authority (EPCA) is set to meet the higher-ups of the Delhi government on Monday to take stock of the preparations.
EPCA had, earlier this month, also written to the chief secretaries of all NCR states, including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, seeking time to review the measures under GRAP.
“It is going to be a preparatory meeting for implementing measures under GRAP as well as the Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP), which has been recently notified by the Union government. At present, the weather conditions are favourable. However, it will start changing from October onwards for which all agencies have to be ready,” said a senior Delhi government official.
From sprinkling of water on major roads, hiking of parking fee to banning use of diesel generator (DG) sets and shutting down of polluting factories, among others, the GRAP has an advisory for every category of pollution level. The CAP, meanwhile, is being implemented by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In the past, the AAP government has implemented two rounds of the odd-even traffic rationalising scheme to deal with ‘emergency levels’ of air pollution.
“We have scheduled a meeting with the Delhi government which will headed by the chief secretary to discuss implementation of GRAP ahead of winter,” said Bhure Lal, EPCA chairman.
GRAP, which was notified last year, will be implemented between October 15 and March 15. The measures are suggested to reduce — PM 2.5 and PM 10 — the major pollutants in Delhi NCR, which can have adverse affect on public health.
Even though measures listed in GRAP to combat moderate and poor air quality are implemented during the summer months when air quality is comparatively better, measures for very poor and severe air quality comes into play from October 15.
A study commissioned by the Delhi government to IIT-Kanpur on air pollution in the city published in 2016 stated there were 13 key pollution sources and their relative contributions to different pollutants fouling up the air. These include dust sources such as road dust and construction dust as well as a large number of combustion sources including vehicles, power plants, industries and waste burning.