NEW DELHI: A two day-long round table conference on air pollution was kicked off by Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Monday. Rai, while addressing the conference digitally with experts, said the focus is upon formulating measures to reduce the air pollution in Delhi in future.
This theme for the round table conference is “Measures to be taken to reduce air pollution in Delhi before winter 2021”. With an aim to prepare before the toxic winter arrives in the national capital that causes air pollution problems, the government wants a clear roadmap to deal with the situation.
“Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s government does not wish to wait till September when the air pollution increases in Delhi; with the help of the experts, we want to create a long-term action plan to combat air pollution throughout the year,” Rai said.
The minister added that the AAP government has taken several steps to combat air pollution wherein various reports have found significant improvement in Delhi’s air quality, but the government does not want to be satisfied with this much and wants more improvement.
On the first day, the round table conference focused on the topics of soil or Road dust resuspension and its control, dust pollution due to Construction and Demolition activities and its control, regular pollution control and industrial pollution control.
The key speakers were Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, Centre for science and environment, Mukesh Sharma of IIT Kanpur, Gufran Beig of Indian Institute Of Tropical Meteorology among others.