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'Solving Delhi's air pollution problem little difficult but…': Nitin Gadkari's advice
A layer of smoky haze shrouded Delhi as its air quality deteriorated to the upper end of the "very poor" category on Tuesday due to calmer winds.
Amid the political slugfest over Delhi's ‘very poor’ air quality, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday admitted that solving the air pollution problem is a little difficult but not impossible. Gadkari also said there should not be politics over the issue and the Centre, state government, municipal corporations and farmers should work together.
“Solving Delhi's pollution problem is a little difficult but not impossible. If the Central and state governments, municipal corporations and farmers make efforts together then we can solve the problem. We should forget politics and work together regarding it,” news agency ANI quoted Gadkari as saying.
A layer of smoky haze shrouded Delhi as its air quality deteriorated to the upper end of the "very poor" category on Tuesday due to calmer winds. The air quality is forecast to become worse over the next two days due to unhelpful meteorological conditions. Favourable wind speed - 15 to 20 kmph - is predicted to bring a considerable improvement from November 11. On Monday, the Delhi government decided to reopen primary classes from November 9 and revoke the order asking 50 per cent of its staff to work from home in view of the improvement in the city's air quality over the last two days.
Gadkari said, “It's our priority to solve air, water and sound pollution. We are building roads worth ₹60,000 crore around Delhi, which will make the area free from traffic jams. We brought electric vehicles and green hydrogen.”
The road transport and highways minister also people should obey the traffic rules - one important problem is that there's no fear of the law among some sort of people. “We aim to reduce 50 per cent of accidents,” he said.
Gadkari said the government was trying its best to reduce accidents, but still, he is not satisfied yet.
“We have 5 lakh road accidents, mostly people from the age group 18-34 are victims. We are trying our best to reduce accidents still I am not satisfied. People need to be educated and we are focusing on road engineering and emergency services as well,” the Union minister said.
“The amount of work done in building roads in eight years wasn't done in the last 65 years. I think that before 2024 ends, India's road infrastructure will be equal to that of America's road infrastructure. We will be successful in it,” Gadkari added.
