Poor air: EPCA rolls out graded response plan in Delhi-NCR

Measures under the graded response plan's 'very poor' category head, including blanket ban on garbage burning, firecrackers and closure of brick kilns, were today enforced across Delhi by the Supreme Court-empowered EPCA.
For NCR towns, measures enumerated under the 'moderate to poor' category were rolled out.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority labelled Delhi's prevailing pollution level as 'very poor', meaning level of PM 2.5 is ranging between 121-250 micrograms per cubic metre (ug/m3) or PM 10 level is between 351-430 (ug/m3).
The corresponding safe standards of these ultrafine particulate matters are 60 and 100 respectively.
Brick kilns that have not adopted the advanced zig-zag technology, that helps reduce black carbon emission, will have to be shut across the region, EPCA member Sunita Narain said.

In its first meeting after the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was notified by the Centre, EPCA stopped short of enforcing other tough measures like hiking parking fees and blanket ban on diesel generator sets, due to shortcomings at the policy level.

It directed the Delhi government to come up with a parking policy and the city police to impose hefty fine on vehicles that are illegally parked by amending relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.
Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority Chairman Bhure Lal said it was necessary to ensure that there was no repeat of last November's smog episode in Delhi, which according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) was the worst in 17 years.

Delhi Environment Secretary Chandraker Bharti, who was also present in the meeting, said the Badarpur thermal power plant will remain shut even after the January 31 deadline if there is no "power crisis in the city".
During the meeting, which was attended by officials of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, EPCA ordered an "intense drive" against polluting vehicles over the next 15 days.
The EPCA chairman directed the Delhi government to procure more smoke detectors to challan visibly polluting vehicles and begin vacuum cleaning of roads on a larger scale.
"There is 100 per cent mechanical sweeping in Greater Noida. Noida is also doing good in this respect. Why cannot Delhi do the same?" Narain asked.

The toughest measures including the odd-even scheme and construction ban, that are to be enforced when air pollution reaches 'emergency' level did not figure in the deliberations.
"We will have to enhance the capacity of the local pollution control boards. The ground reality is complex especially in NCR town and the mechanism to enforcing it would be highly challenging," an official said.
The EPCA officials also flagged the volume of dust in Gurgaon's air and underlined the need to go for increased tree cover and other dust control mechanism along roads.
Lal and Narain will take stock of the ground reality over the next few weeks and to assess the awareness on GRAP among lower level officials.

Narain made it clear that marriage ceremonies should not be expempted when it comes to the ban on DG sets. The Delhi government was also asked to come out with a list of the exemptions in this regard.
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana were asked to prepare a list of commercial and industrial establishments that have been granted the consent to operate DG sets and submit to EPCA.
"The fly ash at the Badarpur plant should be transported out starting February 1 in special flyash containers," she said.
A Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) official explained that pollution data from all the monitoring stations would be taken into account in preparing a comprehensive Air Quality Index of the city, which would further be shared with all the implementing agencies of the plan.

"This data will also be shared with the Met department which will put out pollution forecast of up to three days along with weather readings," the official said.