The Delhi government has started work on the ‘Winter Action Plan’ for the national capital to fight recurring air pollution with likely focus on encouraging work from home against the Aam Aadmi Party’s flagship Odd-Even scheme. Environment minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said this time, the government will also work on changing the behaviour of people with aggressive awareness campaigns against pollution.
The minister held a meeting with experts who emphasised on artificial rain during the winter months to fight air pollution.
“The main suggestions in the expert meet include change in the behaviour of people related to pollution. Awareness campaigns should be run for this,” Rai said.
Listing out the main suggestions that the government will focus on, he shared that they will encourage work from home in advance and instead of odd-even, they will apply the formula of voluntary restriction on vehicles of one slot.
“Suggestion to have different timings of different offices, suggestion to buy heaters from the CSR fund of companies and distribute them among the guards of the society to prevent burning of biomass in winter, encouraging the use of electric vehicles in hot spots where the level of pollution becomes high and the suggestion of artificial rain are important,” he said.
At the meet, chaired by Rai, leading officials and representatives from all the departments concerned participated and discussed innovative strategies, with artificial rain emerging as the top recommendation.
“On the suggestion of artificial rain by the experts, a letter will be written to the Union Environment Minister on Friday to hold a meeting with the experts of IIT Kanpur and all the departments concerned,” Rai said.
He stated that the future winter action plan will be prepared on the suggestions of the officers and representatives of various departments and institutions. “The main objective of this meeting was to make the winter action plan more effective with the suggestions given by the experts. It was suggested that artificial rain should be made on severe days in Delhi,” he said.
Rai emphasised that his government has succeeded in reducing pollution by making Summer Action Plan and Winter Action Plan in collaboration with all the departments. Due to joint efforts, while the number of good, satisfactory and moderate days were 110 in 2016, they increased to 206 in 2023.
“Separate action plans will be made for hotspots to reduce pollution and improve air quality. Experts have also given their opinion that by making separate action plans at all these hot spots, pollution should be reduced there, so that pollution in Delhi can be further reduced,” the minister added.
For this year, 14 focus points have been identified and the government will work on these with priority in the coming days. These are dust, vehicular, and industrial pollution; pollution caused by stubble burning, open garbage burning, firecrackers. The government will also focus on increasing green cover and tree plantation as well as promotion of public participation.
Review meeting next week
Rai said a review meeting will be held with all the departments concerned on September 5 regarding the Winter Action Plan and a joint action plan will be prepared.
In the meeting, different departments will be assigned specific tasks based on the focus points set under the Winter Action Plan.
Almost every year, particularly after Diwali, the air quality of Delhi slips into hazardous level.
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