Delhi govt launches 15-point winter action plan to combat air pollution

Will install 233 anti-smog guns, form teams to check dust pollution, garbage burning and enforce cracker ban

As the smoggy winter months inch closer in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Delhi government announced a 15-point ‘Winter Action Plan’ to curb air pollution in the Capital, which would include the installation of 233 anti-smog guns and deployment of at least 150 mobile anti-smog guns.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that teams will be formed to check dust pollution, garbage and paddy straw burning, monitor pollution hotspots, and enforce the ban on firecrackers. He added that the use of the Pusa bio-decomposer will be promoted.

Besides, the government is carrying out research in collaboration with IIT-Kanpur to know the amount of pollution and its source at any given point of time. The data from this research is expected to come in from October 20.

Kejriwal said his government will collaborate with the Centre and neighbouring states to combat air pollution. He requested the states to ensure that all vehicles entering Delhi are either CNG or electric vehicles, and to ask industrial units to piped natural gas.

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said: “We have created a green war room comprising nine scientific experts who will monitor the situation and have formed 611 teams to check garbage burning in the open,” he said.

He added that 586 teams have been formed to keep an eye on construction sites in the city and effectively implement the Graded Response Action Plan. The government has also formed teams to enforce the cracker ban and run an anti-dust campaign.

Talking about his government’s efforts to control air pollution, Kejriwal said, “Pollution has been reduced to a great extent with the availability of 24-hour electricity as it does not cause air pollution like diesel does.”

He said Delhi has now become a “model region where there are no coal-based thermal power plants.”

Apart from this, the government is also building an e-waste park where electronic waste collected from the national capital will be processed, he said. “The government will draft thousands of volunteers to ensure the anti-pollution measures are followed,” Kejriwal added.

Pollution levels peak during Diwali, which will be celebrated on October 24 this year. This is also the month when there is an increase in instances of stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, which worsens the air quality in the Delhi-NCR.

To combat stubble burning, Kejriwal said: “The government will spray the Pusa bio-decomposer on stubble on around 5,000 acres this year in Delhi.”

Missing synergy

Delhi government had announced an action plan last year too. Kejriwal had then said that Delhi’s biggest problem was “pollution from paddy stubble burning in neighbouring states such as Punjab and Haryana”.

Though it has announced an action plan in Delhi, in Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party won the elections earlier this year, it has not yet come up with any such plan. Punjab alone accounted for 75 per cent of the 113,304 stubble burning cases reported in October and November, last year.

This year similarly, the farm fires have already started in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh with satellite recording more than 300 fire counts in this season so far. According to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)’s real-time monitoring of paddy residue burning events, 155 fire counts have been recorded in Punjab from September 15 to September 30, while 10 such incidents were detected in Uttar Pradesh. One incident was also detected in Haryana. Moreover, on Friday, eight such incidents were reported in Punjab. 

On Friday, Union Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav also expressed his concern and dis-satisfaction with the preparedness of Punjab in taking concrete action on the ground towards Air Quality Management while pointing out that the state government had not planned adequately for management of almost 5.75 million tons of stubble which is a huge gap and was likely to have an adverse impact on the air quality in Delhi and NCR region. 

The Union ministry also asked the Punjab government to expand the coverage of area under Bio-Decomposer through pro-active action because a very marginal increase had been proposed in the coverage of area under Bio-Decomposer i.e. from 7500 acres in 2021 to merely 8000 acres in 2022.

On September 28, Punjab kick-started an awareness campaign to persuade farmers to shun stubble burning and adopt crop residue management. The AAP plans to spray bio-decomposer on 5,000 acres in Punjab on a pilot basis.