Delhi Air Pollution Winter Action Plan: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday unveiled a winter action plan to tackle the menace of air pollution in the capital ahead of the festive season. Addressing a press conference in the national capital, Kejriwal said that the winter action plan will focus on 15 points, including controlling stubble burning, vehicular pollution, open burning, and dust pollution, among others, to reduce air pollution in the national capital in the winter season.
“We have identified 13 hotspots where air pollution is high and a special action plan has been made for each of the hotspots and 13 special teams have been formed. There will be special focus too in these areas,” CM Kejriwal said.
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The Chief Minister said that there has been a 30 per cent reduction in air pollution when compared to 2014 as a result of the measures initiated by the Aam Aadmi Party government in the capital. In 2014, PM2.5 (one of the chief pollutants) used to be 149, today it is 103. In 2014, PM10 (one of the chief pollutants) used to be 324, today it is 223, so there is about a 30% reduction in air pollution,” he said.
Kejriwal said that a bio decomposer made by the PUSA (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) is being used to reduce stubble burning in Delhi. “The bio decomposer will be used in 5,000 acres of farmland this year,” he said, adding that the decomposer was used in 4,400 acres of land last year.
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The CM further said that 13 hot spots have been identified, a war room has been established and 13 special teams have been constituted to reduce pollution in these areas. Other measures include the setting up of 591 teams, deployment of 82 mechanical road sweeping machines, and 530 water sprinkling machines. Additionally, 298 smog guns will ply the roads in the capital during the winter season, the Chief Minister said.
“Pollution caused by the vehicles will be dealt with accordingly. PUC certificates will be checked, and petrol vehicles of 15 years and 10-year-old diesel vehicles will be checked. For compliance, 385 teams have been formed,” he said, adding that construction on an area above 500 square metre will have to be registered on the web portal. Also, construction on an area above the number will have to install an ant-smog gun.
The chief minister said crackers are again prohibited this year. “To increase green cover, 1 crore trees will be planted and 52 lakh will be planted by the Delhi government,” he said.
In May this year, the Delhi CM unveiled a similar 14-point summer action plan to tackle air pollution in the capital. The CM had also said that 84 mechanical road sweeping machines, 609 water sprinklers and 185 anti-smog guns were to be used in different parts of the city as part of the plan. Seventy more integrated mechanical road sweeping machines and 250 integrated water sprinklers were to be added, particularly for PWD roads.
The summer action plan also said that 225 patrolling teams were deployed during the day and 159 teams at night to identify any other source of pollution in the national capital.