New Delhi: In line with the already existing Winter action Plan, the AAP-led government has decided to introduce a Summer Action Plan to tackle pollution for which the State's Environment Minister Gopal Rai held a meeting with officials and has sought an action plan within the next seven days.
The Minister has sought both long-term and immediate solutions which will be implemented from April to September under the Summer Action Plan. The next meeting has been scheduled for April 11 with all departments expected to present their Summer Action Plans in a week.
Under the Summer action plan, the government will work on controlling the pollution in the city for the next 6 months on both emergency levels as well as permanent levels. After the follow-up meeting on April 11, suggestions by all departments will be discussed and the Government will declare the final Summer Action Plan. After which, the State Government will focus on the plan and work towards its implementation over the summer months.
The meeting on Monday was attended by officials from the Environment, DPCC, DDA, MCDs, Fire, DUSIB, Revenue and other concerned departments. As a result of all the measures taken by his government, Rai said that a continuous decrease has been recorded in the city's pollution levels. The pollution levels have been studied and surveyed by several agencies like CSE, TERI, and others, and it was reported that the sources of the pollution include 31 percent contribution from internal state activities ––Delhi's own pollution–-and 69 percent was attributed to the surrounding sources of pollution in the NCR region. The Delhi Government since the launch of the Winter Action plan has been working on it on the ground. "Now that summers have arrived, we discussed the situation with various experts and concerned departments and came to a conclusion that for our Winter Action Plan to be effective, a constructive Summer Action Plan is also required," Rai said.
In the meeting, 14 points have been noted, on the basis of which the various concerned departments have been directed to formulate their action plan suggestions. The points include – open burning, road dust pollution, industrial pollution, urban farming, increasing Delhi's roadside green cover, tree plantation, development of Delhi's lakes, Real Time Apportionment Study, development of eco parks out of e-waste, and monitoring of tree transplantation.
The minister also added that repeated requests have been made to the Centre for a regional solution, saying, "It's not our problem alone. We have been taking steps to reduce pollution from local sources. We demand that the Centre conduct joint review meetings with the states on a monthly basis."