NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has said that it will run an anti-dust campaign in Delhi from October 7 to November 7 under the Winter Action Plan. The government said that under this campaign, 591 teams from 13 departments have been deployed for inspection all over Delhi. Along with this, it is mandatory to do self-registration of all construction sites above 500 square meters on the C&D portal.
Orders have been issued to all the departments for continuous inspection of C&D sites and to take action on violations of the 14 construction rules at these construction sites. To prevent dust pollution, 82 Mechanical Road Sweeping (MRS) machines, 530 water sprinklers and 258 mobile anti-smog guns are being deployed.
Giving information about the campaign, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said, “Air pollution in Delhi is improving steadily due to the stringent steps taken by the government. The government’s efforts have resulted in a decline of 30% in air pollution levels in the city. Consequently, to address the issue of pollution during the winter months, the Chief Minister unveiled a 15-point winter action plan on September 29. To bring further improvement in air pollution in the capital, as a part of the winter action plan, our government is starting the anti-dust campaign.”
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has prepared a Winter Action Plan to check air pollution. The civic body has identified 13 pollution hotspots and the concerned deputy commissioner has been appointed as the nodal officer to carry out anti-pollution work in those areas.
These pollution hotspots include Narela, Bawana, Mundka, Wazirpur, Rohini, R.K. Puram, Okhla, Jahangir Puri, Anand Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Mayapuri and Dwarka. The corporation is planning to take various anti-pollution measures by the zonal offices which include proper disposal of garbage/plastic waste, stopping illegal dumping of construction and demolition (C&D) waste and taking action against violators through challans.
The MCD has also constituted a Dust Control and Management Cell (DCMC) and all superintending engineers and directors (horticulture) are members of this cell. As per the plan to keep C&D waste and dust pollution under control, the civic body has recommended maximising the use of mechanical road sweeping, and water sprinkling for cleaning the roads and suppressing dust particles. To combat dust pollution, maintenance and repair of unpaved roads/broken roads/potholes will also be done.
To take action on the open burning of garbage, the MCD has constituted 383 monitoring teams to stop the activities of biomass/open garbage burning and it has been decided that strict monitoring will be ensured to curb the activities of open burning and throwing of garbage.