‘Green War Room’ to ‘Green Delhi’ App: National Capital All Set to Fight Its Winter Blues

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi, as part of its planned measure to tackle the alarming winter pollution, operationalised its ‘Green War Room’ on Tuesday.

On October 29, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced a 15-point ‘winter action plan’, which included the war room for monitoring and implementation.

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said the Delhi government has launched the ‘Green Delhi’ app to connect people to the Green War Room. Delhiites can download the app on their mobile phones and report any activity that causes pollution with pictures. He further explained that complaints via the app will reach the war room directly and from the war room, they will be communicated to 28 departments concerned. For coordination among the departments and the green war room, a nodal officer has been appointed in each of the 28 departments.

The number of subject experts manning the green war room has been increased compared to last year. Rai said, “Last year, we had a nine-member team here. This year, a team of 17 members have been deployed, who would be headed by environmental scientist, Dr Nandita Moitra."

With this new team, it is expected that both monitoring and implementation would be strengthened.

Rai said that the war room and ‘Green Delhi’ app will act as eyes and ears of the government. Even though many directions are issued to various departments, it is important to monitor whether these actually work on the ground or not.

The minister also credited the participation of Delhiites on the 30% reduction in pollution. Quoting the CSE report, Rai said, “At least 31% of the winter pollution in Delhi is due to local sources, while 61% comes from NCR sources. The government will be successful only when all stakeholders work together."

He appealed to Delhiites to download the app and send their complaints promptly if they find anything amiss.

Last year, according to the Delhi environment minister, the Green War Room had received more than 17,000 complaints, of which more than 90% were resolved. While 45,000 complaints were received from MCD-ruled areas, PWD was next with more than 10,000 complaints and DDA stood at the third position with more than 4,000 complaints.

The Green War Room is also equipped with a big screen that show incidents of stubble burning in real time and monitors the same. Another screen gives information about the AQI levels in different hotspots. Daily reports analysing different situations are also presented in the green war room.