New Delhi, Nov 6: The alarming deterioration of air quality in the national capital has prompted the Centre to call a meeting of the environment ministers of the neighbouring states on Monday to find a way out of the “emergency situation”.
Likening the city to a “gas chamber”, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that his government’s prima facie investigation has revealed that the burning of an estimated 20 million tonnes of agricultural waste in Haryana and Punjab has led to a rise in air pollution and smog. “I saw smoke across Haryana and Punjab during my visits,” he said.
He said he had informed Union Minister of State for Environment Anil Madhav Dave about the situation in the neighbouring states at a meeting on Saturday evening. “We have urged the Centre to intervene,” he said.
Worst in 17 years
Delhiites are battling severe smog and air pollution post Deepavali. According to environmental experts, the national capital suffered the worst case of smog in 17 years on Thursday.
The Particulate Matter (PM) 10 level recorded around 8 pm in west Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh monitoring station was 1526 microgram per cubic metre, which is 15 times higher than the prescribed limit of 100 ug/m3. The PM 2.5 level was registered at 900 ug/m3, which is also 15 times higher than the safe limit of 60 ug/m3.
Areas near central Delhi’s Mandir Marg recorded PM 10 and PM 2.5 levels of 1058 ug/m3 and 893 ug/m3, respectively.
Due to the devastating smog that has enveloped the national capital, the environmental monitoring agency SAFAR has marked Delhi under the ‘severe’ category. According to its forecast, air pollution in the city is likely to fluctuate from ‘severe’ to ‘very bad’ over the next three days.
“That doesn’t mean our efforts to control air pollution will stop,” Kejriwal clarified and added that farmers should be provided with an alternative method or technology to dispose of agricultural waste.
Kejriwal also said the closure of schools and the odd-even scheme were not feasible, long-term solutions to the problem. “The odd-even scheme will only reduce vehicular pollution in the city. But it will not deal with waste burning and other internal sources of air pollution,” he said.
Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung also called for a high-level meeting on Monday with Kejriwal, Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain, municipal corporation and civic body chiefs and senior government officials to discuss the deteriorating air quality.
While municipal schools were shut on Saturday as a contingency measure, chairperson of North Corporation’s Education Committee Mamta Nagpal said, “The three municipal corporations will take a collective decision on Sunday on whether to close schools until the situation gets better.”
Many private schools in the city, however, have decided to shut down for a few days to keep children safe.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain and Environment Minister Imran Hussain inspected the Bhalswa Landfill site, a day after the NGT rapped the Delhi government on the declining air quality in the city.
Jain said the dumping ground was one of the major contributors of pollution.
“One of the major causes of pollution in the city is the landfill at Bhalsawa. Most of the time we see that the garbage pile is on fire. I have myself come to monitor how the problem could be solved as this air is very hazardous. We are working on how to do away with the garbage which is dumped here and how the city could be saved from pollution,” he said.
The minister said the municipal corporations have been making efforts to douse the fire and have sought 15-20 days to complete the task.
The Delhi government is also mulling over using the garbage in the construction of the roads to minimise its hazardous effect.
“Fifty-sixty per cent of the garbage could be recycled to make roads. The rest of it could be sent to the waste-to-energy plant,” Jain said.
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