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Delhi air toxic for third straight day
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON DEC 25, 2020 04:06 AM IST
The conditions led several experts to question what the newly formed Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in Delhi-NCR had achieved in mitigating the crisis, and what it was doing differently from the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority, or EPCA, that it effectively replaced.

As Delhi battles bad air, new commission to fight pollution still to be formed
By HT Correspondent | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON NOV 06, 2020 02:54 AM IST
As Delhi’s air on Thursday deteriorated to its worst level in a year, a newly announced commission to replace the Supreme Court-appointed environment pollution control authority (Epca) was yet to take shape amid concerns over the implementation of urgent measures for pollution control action.

Air quality still ‘very poor’; watchdog will take shape next week
By Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 31, 2020 05:04 AM IST
With the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca) disbanded, and the Commission yet to be constituted, no body is mandated to take and implement region-wise decisions to tackle a spike in pollution levels in the interim.

Enforcement under new ordinance could be tricky, warn experts
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 31, 2020 05:32 AM IST
The ordinance says polluters in Delhi-NCR can be fined up to Rs1 crore and/or face imprisonment up to a term of five years for violations.

Air pollution: New law, new hope, old challenges
By Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 30, 2020 04:35 PM IST
Legal experts said the commission may not be able to do much more than what Epca was already doing.

Centre brings new law to tackle NCR air crisis
By Jayashree Nandi and Abraham Thomas | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
PUBLISHED ON OCT 30, 2020 04:06 AM IST
The new commission replaces all ad-hoc committees and bodies created under court orders, including the SC-appointed environment pollution control authority (Epca), which was tasked with overseeing air pollution control in NCR since 1998.

CAQM: Stronger body, but some gaps remain
By Navroz K Dubash, Shibani Ghosh and Santosh Harish | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 30, 2020 05:40 AM IST
CAQM’s creation is not a trivial change, and almost certainly represents a step-up from Epca. A new commission, with full-time members and dedicated staff, is likely to help address the problem of intermittent focus on air quality.

‘New body shows govt intent’: Epca bows out with grace after 22 years
By Soumya Pillai and Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 30, 2020 05:04 AM IST
While the Epca members put up a brave face, officials in the Delhi government said the body was an appointed by the SC, which meant that all action taken by them was monitored by the apex court.

Move shows determination of government to mitigate pollution: EPCA writes to Prakash Javadekar
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
PUBLISHED ON OCT 29, 2020 03:57 PM IST
The commission for air quality management in the national capital region and adjoining area ordinance has replaced the 22-year-old pollution monitoring body

Air pollution: Centre issues ordinance to form new commission to replace EPCA
By Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 29, 2020 04:28 PM IST
The commission has an objective of implementing a consolidated approach to monitoring, tackling and eliminating causes of air pollution in Delhi-NCR by coordinating with state governments

Delhi pollution: Plans on paper, and poison in the air
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 24, 2020 01:24 AM IST
Starting October 15, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca), enforced several preventive measures listed under the “very poor” category, including banning diesel generator sets, starting mechanised sweeping, and closely monitoring the garbage burning ban, among other steps.

Epca directs strict ban diesel gensets from Oct 15, pollution at construction sites to be monitored
By Prayag Arora-Desai | Hindustan Times, Gurugram
UPDATED ON OCT 09, 2020 07:42 AM IST
The chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), which is tasked with control and prevention of air pollution in Delhi-NCR, has issued a “most urgent” directive to the chief secretary, Haryana, as well as the Haryana State Pollution Control Board, on Thursday evening after a meeting.

Focus on on-ground implementation, Epca tells Delhi govt
By Vatsala Shrangi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 06, 2020 03:06 AM IST
The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (Epca) on Monday said that the action plan launched by the Delhi government to combat winter pollution was welcome.

Delhi government’s plan of action to curb pollution in winter: All you need to know
By Vatsala Shrangi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON SEP 23, 2020 02:10 PM IST
Pollution levels in Delhi are also affected due to a rise in pollution in neighbouring states and satellite towns

Delhi transport dept urges owners of older vehicles to fix HSRPs, fuel stickers
By HT Correspondent | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON SEP 23, 2020 01:37 PM IST
HSRPs and colour-coded stickers are mandatory for all vehicles registered in Delhi and action can be taken against owners who fail to do so under motor vehicle rules

EPCA asks agencies to jointly patrol industrial areas to check pollution
By Vatsala Shrangi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON SEP 23, 2020 03:46 AM IST
EPCA also asked the government and civic agencies to make plans for removal of garbage, construction and demolition waste from these spots and ensure that vacant plot of lands were not used for dumping waste or garbage and also that it is not burnt.

EPCA writes to Punjab and Haryana to act against stubble burning
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON SEP 23, 2020 03:49 AM IST
Delhi government data shows that in 2019, stubble burning accounted for 44% of air pollution in the national capital.

SC seeks plan to install RFID at all toll points in Delhi
By Abraham Thomas | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON AUG 13, 2020 01:42 AM IST
According to the EPCA report, the entry of commercial vehicles at 13 entry points has reduced from a maximum of 38,000 per day to 3,000 per day after the introduction of ECC and RFID system.

Upload Covid-19 waste disposal data on app, says top court
By Abraham Thomas | Hindustan Times, New Delhi, New Delhi
UPDATED ON AUG 04, 2020 02:39 AM IST
The move comes after a direction by the Supreme Court last week, based on a slew of recommendations by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) that flagged the need for tracking and monitoring the biomedical waste as most of it went untreated after getting mixed with general waste.

Better segregation of biomedical waste needed: EPCA
By Vatsala Shrangi and Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON JUL 31, 2020 07:10 AM IST
The report stated that the volume of waste generated in June was marginally higher, 372.47 tonnes per day, but this was because biomedical waste from patients in home isolation and quarantine centres was not segregated and so general waste was mixed with it.

EPCA chief Bhure Lal calls out ‘delayed action’ against polluting activities
By Hindustan Times
UPDATED ON JUL 26, 2020 11:01 PM IST
SC-mandated EPCA is the enforcing body for Graded Response Action Plan that defines specific measures to tackle different levels of air pollution throughout the year.

Lack of funds, staff hamper SC-backed pollution monitoring agency’s work powers
By Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON NOV 08, 2019 11:09 AM IST
The EPCA has very few active members and lacks dedicated central funding. At best, it can request for vehicles or a couple of support staff from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Priyanka Chopra claims it’s hard to shoot in Delhi smog, says ‘We are blessed with air purifiers and masks, pray for the homeless’
By HT Correspondent | Hindustan Times
UPDATED ON NOV 04, 2019 09:23 AM IST
Priyanka Chopra is in Delhi for the shoot of her Netflix film, The White Tiger, but has expressed how difficult it is to shoot in such conditions.

Pollution control body declares public health emergency in Delhi-NCR, bans construction till Nov 5
By Press Trust of India | New Delhi
UPDATED ON JUL 16, 2020 06:23 PM IST
The air quality in Delhi-NCR deteriorated further Thursday night and is now at the severe plus level, EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal said in a letter to the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

CPCB says let employees work from home, carpool to work to curb air pollution in Delhi
By Soumya Pillai and Jayashree Nandi | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 19, 2019 05:25 AM IST
Schools should also provide transport to students to avoid the bunching of private vehicles outside, said CPCB member secretary Prashant Gargava.

‘Poor power supply no excuse to run gensets’: NGT to Haryana discom
By Dhananjay Jha | Hindustan Times, Gurugram
UPDATED ON OCT 18, 2019 10:00 AM IST
The Haryana government had on Tuesday requested Epca to exempt certain residential and commercial areas of Gurugram from the ban on diesel generators.

Farm fires down, but pollution continues to peak in Delhi
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 16, 2019 11:24 PM IST
Experts have blamed the dip in the capital’s air quality mainly on local factors such as construction and road dust, and garbage burning that need to be reined in urgently.

Delhi pollution body plans to use drones to strengthen monitoring
By Soumya Pillai | Hindustan Times, New Delhi, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 09, 2019 09:19 AM IST
In Delhi, the drones can only be used with permissions. Even with permissions, certain restrictions such as flying only during day time and within a height of 50 feet, needs to be followed.

Bad air measures kick in next week to check spike
By HT Correspondents | Hindustan Times, New Delhi
UPDATED ON OCT 08, 2019 05:12 AM IST
An AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’, as per norms laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Chaos at toll points after EPCA orders for cashless recharge of RFID tags
By Baishali Adak | New Delhi
UPDATED ON SEP 15, 2019 06:55 AM IST
A month after the use of RFID tags was made mandatory, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is the nodal agency to implement the RFID project, said that only 14,654 commercial vehicles — as against over three lakh tags sold — were using the tag to enter the national capital.