World Health Organisation’s report on pollution is an eye-opener and a lot still needs to be done to keep the air around us clean
The World Health Organization’s report stating Delhi and 13 other Indian cities as the most polluted in the world came as a rude shock to government agencies, which usually wait to announce measures to tackle air pollution after being actually hit by the smog after Diwali.
However, all the measures announced by the Delhi government and civic agencies last year --- garbage management, garbage burning, construction dust management and reducing the number of private vehicles on roads --- are nowhere in place.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Control Authority had told the government to create a robust public transport system including increasing the number of buses. Since last year, not a single bus has been added to the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet which has 3,775 buses. The Aam Aadmi Party government has only recently floated a tender for acquiring 1000 low-floor buses.
“Besides DTC fleet, the government had to focus on increasing the number of Metro feeder buses for last-mile connectivity. Till the time the public transport is not reliable, vehicular pollution, which contributes to 20% of the overall air pollution in the National Capital Region, will not go down,” said Vivek Chattopadhyay, senior scientist and part of clean air programme, Centre for Science and Environment.
Only the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has taken steps to control dust pollution, while other construction sites can be openly seen flouting norms, he added.
“We have been issuing challans and notices to sites not taking dust control measures. Last year we issued over 300 challans,” a state government official said.
The civic agencies including public works department (PWD) had to vacuum-clean roads, but they could not procure as many machines and hence the experiment wasn’t successful, the officials said.
The landfill sites have exhausted while civic bodies have not been able to find land or even segregate waste at the source for recycling or compost. While the only aspect where Delhi has taken a leap in comparison to neighbouring states, said experts, is the use of clean fuel.
“All petrol and diesel vehicles in the city now confirm to BS-VI (Euro) fuel, which will help cut down on air pollution,” said Chattopadhyaya.
Vijay Goel to lead anti-pollution rally
Former Delhi BJP president and Union minister Vijay Goel will lead an anti-pollution cycle rally in the city to lodge his protest against the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s failure to curb the menace of air pollution in the national Capital.
A social media campaign #RightToBreathe will also be initiated to create awareness on the drive.
Goel has slammed the government for its inaction to control the situation and engaging in a war of words instead of taking constructive steps to save the national Capital from international shame. The minister said, “The Kejriwal-led AAP only brings in odd-even like mantras which are a total failure and only a means to blow up taxpayers’ money in publicity.”
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