Dust Pollution in Delhi: Govt to Penalize Construction Companies
The Lt. Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, has reviewed the status of measures taken by various agencies to combat air pollution in Delhi.
The review meeting was attended by the Minister (Environment & Forest) Imran Hussain; Chief Secretary, Delhi Government; Commissioner (Transport); Secretary (New Delhi Municipal Council); Commissioner, North MCD; Special Commissioner (Traffic), Delhi Police; Special Secretary (Environment & Forest); Pr. Commissioner, Delhi Development Authority (DDA); Director (Education); and Sunita Narain, Director General (Centre for Science and Environment).
This meeting on Friday was in continuation of previous meetings on the subject to take actions in the short and long term for improving air quality in Delhi.
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For dust control at construction sites, it was informed that for monitoring and action against violators of dust control measures, government has launched special drive to improve air quality by way of enforcing dust control measures by the construction project agencies and individuals.
Area SDMs, Tehsildars, Assistant Engineers of PWD and DPCC are regularly inspecting projects for checking the compliance of dust control and are levying penalties for violations of dust control measures.
Moreover, construction activities are being regularly monitored to check and minimize emissions. Transportation of construction and demolition material / waste under tarpaulin cover, is being strictly implemented.
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The Lt. Governor emphasized on water sprinkling with mechanical sweeping. He also directed the concerned agencies to penalize all construction agencies in case of any violation of dust control norms.
The meeting laid special emphasis on dust control measures. It was informed to Lt. Governor that for dust control, 15 Mechanical Road Sweepers are in operation in South MCD. In East MCD, 4 Mechanical Sweeping machines have been deployed during night, while in North MCD, 4 Mechanical Road Sweepers are operational and another 4 Mechanical Road Sweepers are being procured by North MCD.
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It was informed to Lt. Governor that 18 new Real Time Air Pollution Monitoring Stations have been installed and are functional while two are under final stages of commissioning and calibration. He was also informed that Badarpur Thermal Power Station has been closed with effect from 17th October, 2017.
The Lt. Governor instructed that ban on the use of electricity generator as per Graded Response Action Plan should be intensively enforced by SDMs. He also directed Power Department, Delhi Government to publicize the simplified procedure for temporary electricity connections.
Finally, the meeting noted partial success in the efforts made so far as the air quality during this year’s festival time was comparatively better than last year.
However, it was stressed that the efforts must be intensified as considerable distance remains to be traversed before the battle against air pollution can be decisively won.
