Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday announced that the ‘Red Light on, Gaadi off’ campaign would be held from 18 October to 18 November.
He said a joint meeting with senior officials of the Environment and Revenue Departments and the Delhi Police was held over the implementation of the ‘Red Light on Gaadi off’ drive.
Rai informed that 2,500 civil defence volunteers will be deployed at 100 inter-sections under the campaign in Delhi.
Ten volunteers each will be deployed at 90 inter-sections and 20 environmental marshals each will be deployed at 10 major intersections in the city. The campaign will be run in two shifts from 8 am to 8 pm. Pamphlets with an appeal to the public on the Chief Minister’s behalf will also be distributed at these intersections, Rai added.
He said, “The Delhi government is taking all the necessary steps to reduce pollution levels in the city. To put a plug on dust pollution, an anti-dust campaign was launched on 7 October. To reduce pollution due to stubble burning, the Pusa Institute-prepared bio-decomposer is being sprayed all across Delhi for free by the government. Now, to reduce vehicular pollution, the Chief Minister has requested people to extend their support in this fight. He has made three appeals to the public. First — turn your car off at red lights; second — try not to use your personal vehicles at least once a week; third — report any instance of pollution you see on the Green Delhi app.”
Rai said the major inspections where the campaign’s implementation will take place on a larger scale are Chandgi Ram Akhara (Ring Road), ITO Chowk, Rajghat Chowk, Tilak Marg-Bhagwan Das Crossing, Kadkadi Mod, Barakhamba-Tolstoy Marg Crossing, Rajesh Pilot Marg-Prithvi Road Crossing, Madhuban Chowk, Moti Bagh (Ring Road) and Peeragarhi Chowk.
“We will do our best to ensure maximum public participation in the campaign. To make it successful, RWAs, market associations, clubs and NGOs are also being approached so that they can spread awareness about the campaign with their platforms,” he pointed out.
Gopal Rai stated, “As informed earlier, the PCRA has reported that vehicle-caused pollution can be drastically reduced by 13-20 per cent just by switching off cars at red lights, and a further of Rs 250 crore can be saved through this activity.”
“We can all contribute towards reducing vehicular pollution while going about our day-to-day work. This campaign was successful the last time because people participated enthusiastically in it. I am appealing to everyone to come be a part of this and reduce pollution to protect Delhi,” he said.