NEW DELHI: Aiming to reduce vehicular pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government launched the ‘Red light on, gaadi off ’ campaign from the ITO intersection on Thursday. Environment Minister Gopal Rai said that the government has announced a 15-point winter action plan to deal with pollution and is working on it.
“The pollution that increases in the city is due to pollution caused by biomass burning, dust, and vehicular pollution. In view of this, the ‘Red light on, gaadi off ’ campaign has been initiated,” he said. “The government has started a green war room against pollution.
Along with this, an anti-dust campaign has been run, in which action is being taken to prevent pollution caused by dust. Apart from this, bio decomposers are being sprayed acres to prevent stubble burning. Now, the ‘Red light on, gaadi off ’ campaign is being initiated,” he said.
Rai continued, “A survey of the Petroleum Conservation Research Association states that vehicle pollution can be reduced by 15-20 per cent if all the engines are switched off at red light. Consider this real-life situation.
When someone steps out of their house with a vehicle, they cross 8-10 crossings during their journey. If the duration of the red light is 2 minutes and we do not switch off our engine, we are burning fuel unnecessarily for 25-30 minutes. It is only our mindset that when the red light turns green and if our engine is not on, other vehicles will overtake us.”
The minister said that the campaign will be run at Barakhamba Road on October 28 and Chandgi Ram Akhara intersection on October 30. On November 2, the campaign will be run in all 70 assembly constituencies. He informed that on November 3, an awareness drive will be conducted among children in schools through 2,000 eco clubs.
“When the government conceptualised the ‘Red light on, gaadi off ’ campaign for the first time in 2020, it was done on the basis of several studies conducted across India. I am requesting Delhi people to become a part of this entire campaign along with Paryavaran Mitra, RWAs and eco clubs. You can make your valuable contribution by avoiding unnecessary burning of fuel,” the minister said.