‘Regional action plan a must to check air pollution’
LUCKNOW: After the revelation that 53 districts in the state lack any mechanism to monitor air quality and 22 cities where air quality data is available do not conform to the national air quality standards, Greenpeace India, Go Green and The Climate Agenda joined other civil society groups to organise a symposium on air pollution on Saturday.
The participants highlighted the need for a regional action plan to improve air quality in pollution ridden Uttar Pradesh.
A report released by Greenpeace India earlier this week portrayed the scary and abnormally high levels of air pollution in UP.
The report called Airpocalypse-II collated and highlighted particulate matter, or PM10, levels in the air of 280 Indian cities for 2015 and 2016. It said with 15 of its cities among 30 cities with highest levels of toxic air in the country, UP was India’s most polluted state.
Senior Greenpeace campaigner Sunil Dahiya said the air pollution in UP was most worrisome. Famed social worker Tahira Hasan shared her ideas about raising the levels of public awareness in the wake of rapidly growing air pollution and to fight it through a vibrant people’s movement.
She said, “We will have to go to schools, colleges and various localities and spread awareness. We must realise that a safe and healthy environment is essential for a socially just development model.”
To motivate people for environmental protection and improving the quality of air, a musical performance marked by soulful songs was held alongside the symposium. Those attending the event felt the air pollution had attained the levels of a national health crisis and that in Uttar Pradesh it was as or even more serious than Delhi.
They said to tackle this, all sections of society and the government should come together and demand and devise a comprehensive, systematic and time bound action plan.