Govts in India’s Delhi, four states develop plans to tackle stubble burning, air pollution
The local governments of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have developed detailed monitorable action plans to tackle the problem of agricultural stubble burning and air pollution, officials said.
The plans have been formulated based on the framework made by the commission for air quality management (CAQM).
“To abate pollution due to stubble burning the commission informed that Punjab, National Capital Region
(NCR) states have prepared detailed action plans for the prevention and control of stubble burning,” a statement issued by the federal ministry of environment, forest and climate change said.
The environment ministry said 143,801 machines are already available for crop residue management and more being procured in the current year to facilitate in-situ crop residue management.
According to the ministry, directions have been issued for adopting a standard protocol developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for recording and monitoring the fire counts owing to stubble burning.
Mitigation
The directions have also been issued to NCR state governments, Delhi government, road owning agencies and municipal bodies for abatement of dust from roads and open areas through a dust control and management cell.
For mitigating the industrial pollution, the commission informed that shifting of Industries to piped natural gas and cleaner fuels is a priority.
To control the vehicular pollution, support will also be made for mandating procurement of zeroemission and e-vehicles to give a further push to clean technologies in the transport sector.
Indian capital city Delhi is among the topmost polluted cities in the world. For the past many years, every year ahead of winters the air quality in Delhi becomes hazardous.
Industrial activities and vehicular traffic are significant contributors to air pollution in the city, along with rampant construction.
Officials in Delhi blame the stubble burning in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana for the increasing pollution.