Centre, states huddle to tackle growing crisis of air pollution
New Delhi: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav has held a meeting with the Environment Ministers of the States of National Capital Region, Delhi Government and Punjab on the issue of air pollution. During the meeting, a plan of affirmative and punitive action has been prepared by the states to deal with air pollution.
The objective of this meeting was to ensure coordinated action and cooperation of all stakeholders to tackle air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region this season. Haryana Chief Minister and in-charge of Environment Department Manohar Lal Khattar, Hemaram Chaudhary-Rajasthan, Gopal Rai-Delhi, Dr. Arun Kumar-Uttar Pradesh and Gurmeet Singh Meet-Punjab participated in the meeting.
Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey also attended the meeting.
The CAQM made a detailed presentation on various aspects and challenges with respect to controlling air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) region. The CAQM explained the steps, directions and suggestions along with the activities designed to manage air pollution during this season. The major areas discussed in the meeting were agricultural stubble burning, industrial pollution, pollution from diesel generator sets, vehicular pollution, dust from electrically operated, road and open areas as well as construction and demolition works. Contains dust generated from. The CAQM reiterated the broad policy guidance as well as the policies formulated by the various agencies concerned for targeted short/medium and long-term action across multiple sectors.
The CAQM also informed that several meetings have been conducted with agencies and state governments to ensure awareness about the management of air pollution, graded response action plan as well as monitoring and office. Considering the estimated figures of paddy straw production provided by the states, the magnitude of the problem was also discussed in the meeting.
Efforts are being made to tackle the pollution caused by the dust released during construction and demolition activities. A web portal functioning in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has made it mandatory for the registration of projects running on plots of size more than 500 sqm to comply with the instructions issued to control the dust released during construction activities. . Deployment of anti-smog guns based on the total construction area was also discussed as a need to combat dust pollution.
