State Environment Minister targets agency, which functions under the Centre, for not issuing challans in areas under its jurisdiction
The air quality in the Capital has improved slightly, but not to the satisfaction of the Delhi government. A fortnight after Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor (LG) Najeeb Jung announced emergency measures to combat severe pollution in the city, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain has termed the actions taken by various agencies as ‘not satisfactory’, in a review meeting held on Monday.
Hussain, in particular, singled out the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) under the Centre for issuing no challans for burning waste/leaves. The Environment Minister has now asked its officials to verify if, in fact, no cases of waste burning were brought to the notice of the DDA.
“Considering the report submitted by the DDA officials with regard to prohibition on burning of leaves and garbage, the minister directed the officials to cull out the complaints observed in areas under the jurisdiction of DDA to counter-check the Authority’s report,” stated the minutes of the meeting.
Meanwhile, according to the government data, 11 Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) teams, along with the Revenue Department teams, inspected 496 sites in the city and issued 289 challans, amounting to nearly Rs 89 lakh. The Public Works Department (PWD), which had not issued any challans in October, issued 129 challans amounting to Rs 13,20,000 in November, for violation of dust control measures at construction sites.
At the same time, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation issued 408 challans for waste burning, the south corporation filed a ‘Nil’ report and the north corporation did not submit any action taken report.
Also, the DPCC had launched two WhatsApp helpline numbers — 9717593501 and 9717593574 — to register complaints. As many as 247 leave/garbage burning complaints were lodged on these numbers but the data collated from various government departments showed that no action was taken on them.
“The complaints on the helpline numbers were made between November 1 and 21. Only two agencies sent a report regarding action taken on the complaints. The minister has now asked all the nodal officers to take the WhatsApp complaints seriously and send action taken report on them,” said a senior government official.
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