Delhi Chief Minister Atishi on Tuesday said in the wake of rise in city’s air pollution with Air Quality Index (AQI) stepping into the ‘poor’ zone, and implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan’s stage-1, a total of 99 teams will be on ground to ensure compliance with dust mitigation measures across government and private construction sites all over the national capital.
Addressing a press conference, the Delhi CM informed that in a high level meeting of officials from multiple agencies, chaired by her in presence of the Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, it has been decided that 33 teams each from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the Revenue Department and the Industries Department — total 99– will monitor dust mitigation on a daily basis.
These teams will submit the daily report regarding the dust control measures and violations to the Green War Room, Environment Minister’s office and the CM office, she added.
Atishi said that this year, AQI in Delhi has been good for 200 days so far, but the pollution has increased in the past two days, with the AQI measuring above 200, falling in the ‘poor’ category.
The CM further said that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been instructed to remove Construction and Demolition waste for which 154 teams will work — 79 teams during the day and 75 teams at night.
She said that the second important mandate in this regard of the civic body is to stop the open biomass waste burning, for which 116 teams will be deployed during the day and as many at night.
Emphasising on one more important aspect in keeping a check on pollution, Atishi said that for the ‘Road Dust Control’ she said that PWD is repairing 1400 km of its roads on a war footing .
A timeline for completion of repair work for roads under the NCRTC and DMRC has been set for October 30, CM said.
According to Aitishi, a review meeting was held with the MCD last week, and the corporation was asked to repair potholes on roads that fall under its jurisdiction.
She further said that apart from road repairs, installation of smog guns is also done to mitigate dust, and in Tuesday’s meeting it was decided that the PWD will deploy 200 anti- smog guns, the DMRC will deploy 80 anti- smog guns while the MCD will operate 30 and the NCRTC will deploy 14.
According to the CM, traffic police have been asked to identify the places prone to jams, and increase deployment at such places to better manage traffic congestion.
The CM said it has been observed during festive season that there is more traffic on certain roads, which causes traffic jams.
Atishi said that if the traffic police needs more personnel for traffic management from Delhi Home Guards, it may provide a requisition by Wednesday.
The CM informed that there will also be a clamp down on the use of diesel powered generators at the banquet halls and other such places, and distribution companies will be asked to explore ways to reduce the charges for temporary connection during the high pollution months.
She added that the government will also conduct an awareness drive, under which the government will appeal to the public for adopting ‘car pool,’ and not to burn crackers during Diwali, while RWAs will be asked to provide electric heaters to the security guards in their areas to avoid burning of wood.