In national capital, civic agencies, cops say prepared for action plan
NEW DELHI: The three municipal corporations and the Delhi Traffic Police on Monday said they were committed to take all necessary steps to ensure that the 10-point anti-pollution Winter Action Plan unveiled by the Delhi government is fully implemented.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday released the city’s winter action plan, which will be a guiding document to manage the pollution levels in the Capital this winter. Kejriwal set a 10-point agenda, which details tasks to be performed by various agencies, to control pollution at source.
Delhi government officials said that while it is a state-level action plan, and the Delhi state pollution control board along with other agencies will continue to act simultaneously on the emergency measures laid down under the Sc-mandated Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).
Every winter, Delhi experiences a huge spike in air pollution due to a combination of several local, external and meteorological factors such as crop stubble burning in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, burning of garbage, road dust and low temperatures and poor wind speed trapping pollutants in the air closer to the ground.
In fact, in the run-up to the formulation of the action plan, the Delhi government had asked all agencies, including the PWD, the civic bodies, the traffic police and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to come up with their own plans to ensure that air pollution could be prevented from slipping into emergency levels.
On Monday, several senior functionaries in the three municipal corporations of Delhi stated that most of the pollution countermeasures mentioned in the Delhi government’s winter action plan are already covered under the Supreme Court-mandated Grap, and the municipal bodies will replicate the measures taken last year with a few modifications.
Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) mayor, said a “three-pronged strategy” will be undertaken in the form of using water sprinkler tankers, pressing 10 mechanical road sweepers in service for controlling dust on roads and deploying enforcement teams for checking waste burning in trans-yamuna areas.
“Most of the measures in the action plan were already being undertaken last year under
Grap. Even if some additional steps have been directed which are for public welfare, we are committed to execute them,” a senior EDMC official said.
Road dust is one of the major contributors to the particulate pollution (PM2.5 and PM10) in Delhi -- the primary pollutants in Delhi’s air.
The Delhi traffic police said they are already working towards decongesting the list of 64 stretches that they have submitted to the government. Traffic jams amplify pollution due to vehicular exhaust in particular areas. “These 64 stretches are among the 120 roads which witness consistent traffic snarls in the city, and need to be decongested. We have in the past worked with governments and other agencies, and we will be taking steps to manage the traffic in these areas,” a senior traffic official said.