New Delhi, Nov 10 (UNI) A meeting to deliberate the issue of mitigation of air pollution decided that all concerned organisations of State Governments and Central government involved in this will work towards effectively implementing the short-term measures immediately.
The meeting held under the chairmanship of Environment Secretary here on Friday decided to implement strict compliance of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) and all other directives issued by the courts, effective enforcement of ban on diesel gen-sets, brick kilns, stone crushers, hot mix plants, ban on entry of unauthorised trucks into Delhi and enhancing parking fee and capacity augmentation of public transport, a statement said.
It was also decided to implement the use of methods of dust containment and stop civil construction activities for the moment, ensure watering over unpaved roads to contain road dust, impose fines on defaulters through Municipal Corporations/State Pollution Control Boards and other organisations and improve waste management and stop garbage burning.
The committee also noted that these steps have already been initiated and that each of these needs to be enforced effectively.
It was decided that each state government will set up one or more monitoring groups, which will continuously look at compliance.
There were suggestions that state governments should also set up flying squads to assess the situation on the ground, prevent violation and report.
Chief Secretary of Haryana and representatives from Punjab government informed the Committee that stubble burning in both the states was over and in the medium term, further problems because of that may not arise. However, both had requested that long-term measures to ensure that this does not happen every year need to be put in place.
On these issues, it was decided that the committee will continue to meet regularly and discuss viable options like incentivising the farmers, providing subsidised equipment and using existing technologies to tide over this problem.
The meeting was attended by Chief Secretaries of Haryana and Delhi, Principal Secretary, Department of Environment, Uttar Pradesh Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board and Secretary, Department of Environment, Rajasthan besides other officials.
UNI RBE SHK 2257