Delhi smog: 80% of problem due to local factors, Delhi govt needs to act, says Centre

New Delhi: Union Environment Minister Anil Dave has rejected Delhi government's claim that the major reason behind the Delhi smog is farm fire in Punjab and Haryana.

Speaking to the media after he chaired a meeting of environment ministers of Delhi and its neighbouring states, Dave said, “We must understand that 80% of the problem is due to local factors, only 20% is due to neighbouring states.”

Referring to the limitations of the federal structure, the minister said that the state government has to take steps to tackle pollution in the city.

“Till state government takes initiative immediately, no issue would be solved. They must sprinkle water and do the needful on time,” he said, adding that dust is one of the major reasons for pollution.

Dave also said that the priority should be on tackling the problem.

“There must not be 'blame game' here when two crore people are struggling to breathe, right now the priority is to make air pollution free,” he said.

The union minister said that the Centre will issue state specific environment protection calendar to control pollution.

Meanwhile, the New Delhi Municipal Council has begun sprinkling of water using jet pressure pump technique to control air pollution.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court today said that it will hear a plea on the alarming state of air pollution in Delhi as it was told that it had, in the past, issued several directions but their effective implementation and enforcement was lacking.

A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice L Nageswara Rao agreed to hear the matter on Tuesday after Sunita Narayan of Centre for Science and Environment told the court that there was no effective implementation of the directions issued by the apex court last year.

She told the court that as of now the direction issued in the past were sufficient but if the need arose they would urge the court to issue further directions.

She sought from the court monitoring of the implementation of its directions.

The apex court was also given the report by the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority for NCR on the state of air pollution in the national capital territory.  

With agency inputs