The 15-day Delhi Clean Air Campaign that ended on Friday saw 7,357 cases of pollution norm violations and penalties were imposed in 3,117 or 40 per cent of the cases, the environment ministry said. The campaign was a joint effort Centre and Delhi government had 70 field teams were monitoring compliance of pollution norms.
The Capital's air quality saw an overall marginal improvement during the course of the campaign, as it went from very poor to satisfactory and back to the poor category, according to data analysis by System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR).
Out of the 7,357 cases of violations the maximum; 3,742 were of dust pollution from the construction and demolition activity and penalties were imposed in 2,051 of those cases. Open burning, visible vehicular pollution, traffic violations, road dust pollution, landfill violations and miscellaneous cases accounted for the rest of the cases of violations. The ministry was yet to arrive at a final figure of the revenue collected from the penalties, but preliminary estimates showed that they were in the range of Rs.8 crore to Rs.10 crore.
Environment minister Dr.Harsh Vardhan said that the campaign helped the field staff of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Delhi government to plug gaps in implementation of pollution norms and proved to be an exercise in preparedness for crisis situations. "We know that no permanent solution has come out of this campaign but it showed that it had an impact on improving air quality. The air was very poor at the beginning and it has not gone back to the same levels," he said. The ministry will now implement a similar campaign across 100 non-attainment cities where pollution is above safe limits.
SAFAR's analysis showed that when the campaign began, Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5) levels were in the very poor category. Subsequently, there were gains and between February 10 and February 13, the PM 2.5 levels were in the green or at satisfactory levels. Between February 14 and February 18 it was in the moderate category and at the latter part of the campaign, it went to the poor category.
VISIBLE CHANGE
- When the campaign began, PM 2.5 levels were in the very poor category
- Between February 10 and 13, the PM 2.5 levels were in the green or at satisfactory levels
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