Dust and industrial pollution in focus at 2-day conference

New Delhi: A two-day long conference to prepare a plan on how to reduce air pollution in Delhi began on Monday. Experts from various organisations gave suggestions on measures to take before the winter, like focusing on minimising dust and industrial pollution. Officials said the Delhi government will prepare a long-term action plan for reducing air pollution based on the suggestions.
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai in the conference said that they do not want to wait till September when the air pollution increases in Delhi, but want to create a long-term action plan along with the help of experts. “We need to initiate action throughout the year. No one knows on how long the pandemic will continue and therefore, it is not feasible for us to wait it out,” he said.
Rai further said, “We will have to parallel run environmental programmes to ensure that the AQI does not deteriorate any further. We want suggestions and feedback to create a positive, effective and popular environment plan for the city. We will continue this discussion on Tuesday to create a sustainable and effective action plan.” Thanking the participants, the minister requested them to submit their presentations so that they can study the matters thoroughly.
The environment minister said Delhi government, under the leadership of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, has taken several steps like electric vehicles policy and tree transplantation policy, and many reports have found significant improvement in Delhi’s air quality. “However, we want more improvement,” he said
Anumita Roychowdhury from Centre for Science and Environment, who was one of the participants in the meet, said, “This is an important initiative by the ministry to engage with a diverse group of stakeholders to identify priority action for air pollution mitigation in different sectors. We hope this initiative will be carried forward to formulate the next steps to clean up the capital’s air.”