A year since the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued directions to control air pollution in Delhi, the government is still discussing implementation of these orders.
The Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change held a meeting on Friday with Delhi and its four neighbours — Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab — to discuss measures to control air pollution, which peaked in the National Capital since Diwali on Sunday night.
Environment Secretary A N Jha, while addressing the media following the discussions, admitted that the “enforcement mechanism was weak.”
The measures detailed by the Secretary following the meeting with States are the same as the 42 directions issued by the CPCB on December 29, 2015. The timeline for implementation of these orders ranged from “immediate” to three months.
However, even after over 10 months, the Ministry, in a statement issued later in the evening, said the states “agreed to the strict enforcement of statutory directions issued by CPCB.”
Some of the directions issued in December last year covered a range of subjects — strict action against visibly polluting vehicles; installing weigh-in-motion bridges at Delhi borders to prevent overloading; early alarm systems related to traffic congestions; ban on agricultural waste and stubble burning; actions against open burning of waste; controlling dust pollution at construction sites and others — had an “immediate” implementation deadline.
Others, such as sprinkling roads with water and vacuum cleaning; maintaining pothole-free roads; strict actions against unauthorised brick kilns and others had deadlines between a month and three months. Most of these, however, haven’t been implemented yet.
On Friday, the PM2.5 pollution levels peaked at 522 µg/m3 around 7.30 am, while PM10 peaked at around 1,430 µg/m3 early morning. The levels remained several times the safe limit of 60 µg/m3 and 100 µg/m3 for PM2.5 and PM10, respectively, keeping the city shrouded in haze.
The Delhi government, meanwhile, announced on Friday that various agencies, such as revenue Department, the municipal corporation and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) have collected ₹ 5.1 crore from violators of dust control measures till October 26. Further, it has collected ₹13.27 lakh for burning waste in the open space.