Delhi LG chairs review meet on air pollution, here's what was discussed

New Delhi: Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Saturday chaired a meeting to review issues pertaining to air pollution in the city and directed the stakeholder agencies and departments to work "effectively" in ensuring that all measures to tackle air pollution are taken in a time-bound manner. MM Kutty, Chairman, Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), set up by the Govt. of India, Chief Secretary, ACS, Environment, Chairman, NDMC, Spl. Officer, MCD, VC-DDA, Pr. Secretaries of PWD and Transport, Spl. CPs Traffic and Commissioner, MCD among others were present in the meeting.

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According to an official statement, the LG appreciated the "Proactive Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)" put in place by the CAQM, instead of the earlier existing reactive measures.

He instructed all implementing Agencies and Departments like DPCC, Transport, PWD and Civic Bodies to work effectively in ensuring that all measures to tackle air pollution are taken in a time-bound manner and asked them to work in complete coordination.

Emphasizing that the air pollution control measures with regards to vehicular emission, road and C&D dust management, burning of solid municipal and agro waste and industrial emissions needed to be immediately taken, the LG issued specific instructions on the matter.

"Pointing that 26 per cent of air pollution on account of PM 2.5 resulted from dust generated from roads, pavements, footpaths, central verges and C&D activities alone, the LG underlined that this needed to be and could be addressed immediately," the statement said.

The LG asked officers to explore the possibility of installing rotating mist sprinklers on high-rise buildings that could spray over a larger area. He directed officials to discard the self-defeating prevalent practice of laying interlocking blocks on reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and go for securing interlocking blocks by compaction, which would allow water to seep down and reduce the cost of construction.

"With regards to the cleaning of roads owned by different agencies by MCD by deploying Mechanical Sweeping Machines, the LG directed the Environment Dept to immediately provide sufficient funds, as undertaken in the Courts, to MCD so that the minimum required number of Machines could be purchased and put to use," it said.

The LG underlined that the sweeping exercise should not be undertaken in a piecemeal manner and instructed that such exercises be undertaken on roads, lanes and by lanes in any pre identified area simultaneously, with a machine for sweeping and collecting dust, a water tanker for spraying and settling dust and horticulture machine and staff to prune over growth, working together.

While asking officials to continue with the policy of encouraging e-vehicles, the LG directed that the charging stations for such vehicles not be allowed to come up on footpaths and pavements, lest it ends up defeating the entire purpose by creating traffic snarls and crowding.