Delhi: Emergency pollution plan rolled out as air quality worsens

Delhi's emergency action plan to fight severe air pollution level rolls out here on Monday, starting with a ban on diesel generator (DG) sets in the national capital. This is the second year of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap), which was implemented in 2017. “Measures listed under Grap to fight ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ categories of air pollution will be rolled out from October 15. This will continue till March 2019,” said Sunita Narain, member of the Supreme Court-appointed panel Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca), which enforces Grap. “With Grap being rolled out from Monday, there will be a ban on diesel generator (DG) sets in Delhi. DG sets will, however, be allowed to operate in NCR towns because it would be impractical to ban them outside the national capital, where there is still a problem of power supply,” said Narain. Measures, such as a ban on construction activities, ban on stone crushers and hot mix plants, enhancing parking fees, and rolling out the odd-even road rationing scheme, will be implemented if the air quality deteriorates further. In November 2017, schools were shut when air quality turned ‘severe’ for more than a week. An AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. “The use of coal has been banned in Delhi by the state government since July this year. But if air quality deteriorates to ‘severe’ levels in NCR towns, we might have to ban the use of such polluting fuels in NCR towns as well for some days,” said a second Epca member who asked not to be named. SDMC Commissioner Puneet Goel said, “The civic agency is committed to strictly enforcing the directions of the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority. We have asked NBCC to immediately stop all construction or demolition activities at site or face the action under Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957.” “Polluting fuels such as coal, kerosene, furnace oil and pet coke have already been banned in Delhi. While on one hand teams comprising officials from CPCB have fanned out across Delhi and NCR towns, environment marshals deployed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) are also flagging violations such as open garbage burning and open construction sites. A section of trucks are also being diverted through the Eastern Peripheral Expressway,” said a senior official of Delhi government’s environment department. “Delhi has taken up a series of measures this time to control pollution levels. But unfavorable meteorological factors such as drop in wind speed and upper air winds bringing in dust from west Asia plays a major factor behind the occasional spikes in pollution levels,” said D Saha, former head of the city’s ait quality laboratory. -PTC News