Crop burning: Harsh Vardhan holds meeting
Imran Hussain discusses measures taken by Delhi government
NEW DELHI: Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Thursday met his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Dara Singh Chauhan and Union Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to discuss the issue of crop burning.
Laws imposed against the burning of crops and the directions issued by the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority on the issue were discussed at the meeting called by the Union Minister.
He was informed that 83 home guard volunteers (environmental marshals) of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, deployed across areas of the three Municipal Corporations, reported 9,845 violations of pollution laws in the capital since January.
Punitive action was taken against 2,656 polluting units since January in this regard. Imran Hussain at the meeting called by Union Environment Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan here on Thursday
Similarly, the three municipal corporations said they took action against 10,196 units operating illegally in Delhi’s non-conforming areas.
Officers of all the stakeholder departments of Delhi and neighbouring states were directed to intensify their actions, as per various categories of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) notified upon the directions of the Supreme Court, to tackle air pollution.
“Measures for prevention and control of road dust and other fugitive emissions have to be put in place. Pollution from construction and demolition activities as well as pollutants from vehicles are another problem that needs to be tackled,” said an official.
The Delhi government directed that development agencies should ensure that all construction sites should adhere to Construction and Demolition Waste Rules, 2016, to avoid any dust emission from construction activities.
It also directed the Transport authorities and Delhi Traffic Police to deploy more staff to ensure strict action against overloaded vehicles and vehicles carrying uncovered construction material.
Hussain also stressed the need to stop entry of non-delhi destined vehicles, as the eastern and western peripheral expressways have now become operational.
The municipal corporations were also directed to explore the feasibility of water sprinkling on inner lanes of the colony, as a lot of dust is generated during manual dry sweeping of roads.
The Public Works Department was directed to increase the deployment of mechanical sweeping machines on roads longer than 60 feet and to arrange sprinkling of water on roads.