Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena, on Thursday, chaired a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) to take stock of the situation arising from the unprecedented rise in air pollution in the city.
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi and Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Chief Secretary, and all senior officers/members of the DDMA were present at the meeting.
During the meeting, the LG emphasised the need to mitigate internal sources of air pollution in the city to which all agreed. Dust was identified as the biggest internal source of air pollution that could be addressed immediately, as even pollution arising out of vehicular emission, etc required a long-term solution.
Saxena pointed out that following a recent meeting of the CAQM, he had directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to start the exercise of collecting dust-generating construction and demolition (C&D) waste, dried-up silt, and cleaning road dust in a mission mode.
He said the results of this had been very encouraging, with MCD and DDA having collected and disposed of 15,000 MT and 8000 MT of dust respectively, during the last fortnight itself.
The chief minister and environment minister of Delhi acknowledged that this drive has helped salvage the situation to a large extent and directed officials of the PWD and the Environment Department to undertake similar exercises in a mission mode.
Speaking on the occasion, Rai lamented that vehicles from other states were entering the city despite alternate routes via the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways earmarked for them. He said enforcement was required to deter them from entering the national capital.
The issues of enforcement of the ban on bonfires, garbage burning, compliance with the PUC, and the lack of adequate manpower for such enforcement of the rules also came up for discussion during the meeting.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) raised the issue of the lack of adequate enforcement machinery, which they said, hampers the efficacy in undertaking various measures under the CAQM and the state government and other government agencies.
The LG suggested that the Divisional Commissioner be advised to call out services of Civil Defence Volunteers (CDVs), specifically of those who were engaged as of 31st October 2023, for a duration of say four months and engage them for air pollution mitigation activities.
He said this should be done on an emergent basis starting 1st November till end of February.
“The government may take a call on their deployment for appropriate duties at PUCC centres, hotspots, DPCC, concerned departments, and Urban Local Bodies under the supervision of district magistrates for the purpose of air pollution mitigation,” the LG said.
This measure shall serve the twin purposes of providing relief to these families who were misled into being engaged for non-existent jobs and also mitigating the impact of the disaster of air pollution in Delhi.