The Ghaziabad residents welfare associations' apex body has objected to the site for displaying the air quality monitor, alleging that the local pollution control board is trying to mislead the residents about the data.
In a letter to District Magistrate Ritu Maheswari, RWA Federation Chairman Col. Tejendra Pal Singh Tyagi (retd) said that the Pollution Control Board announced that the monitor showing levels of the harmful PM 2.5 (Particulate Matter of size 2.5 micrometer) will be at its Vasundhara office and based on data recorded there, but termed this an "attempt to mislead the residents since the Vasundhara office is located in safe zone where air quality is better".
The decision to install display monitors at Mohan Nagar, Raj Nagar Extension, the District Headquarters and Vasundhara Metro station was to display the real figures, but the pollution control body does not wants to display real figures and are trying to minimize them, he added.
If PM 2.5 is monitored at the office of the Pollution Control Board where the vehicular traffic is almost nil, its readings displayed there will be unrealistic, said Tyagi, adding that if PM 2.5 is monitored at busy road like the Mohan Nagar Crossing, it will be found many times over the Indian safe limit of 60 microgram per cubic metre which in itself is three times over the safe limit in the US.
--IANS
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