Directorate of Information & Publicity 
DIRECTORATE OF INFORMATION & PUBLICITY
GOVERNMENT OF DELHI
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New Delhi: 01/04/2015
- ENVIRONMENT MINISTER OF DELHI WRITES TO THE UNION MINISTER ON THE ISSUE OF AIR POLLUTION IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
- ASIM AHMED KHAN REQUESTS THE CENTRE TO CONVENE A MEETING OF NCR STATES
- DELHI GOVERNMENT IS COMMITTED TO IMPROVE THE AIR QUALITY AND WANTS IMPLEMENTATION OF A HOLISTIC PLAN
The environment minister of Delhi Asim Ahmed Khan on Wednesday wrote to the union environment minister Mr Prakash Javadekar on the issue of increase in levels of air pollution in the national capital over the years.
Mr Khan has noted that checking air pollution must be treated on priority by all the concerned authorities and should not become a subject of political wrangling.
In his letter Mr Khan has informed the union environment minister that an action plan to improve air quality in the national capital as recommended by a high power committee headed by the then Chief Secretary of Delhi was sent to the union ministry of environment, forests and climate change in the month of February.
“This action plan was limited to the areas in which the Delhi government can check the rise of air pollution. This action plan specifically focused on short term and long term measures to control air pollution in the national capital,” the minister wrote to the Centre.
Mr Khan has informed that as a follow-up of this action plan, the concerned departments including the DDA, MCD, NDMC Delhi Police etc., “have been requested to prepare time bound implementation plans. The concerned departments are working on the action points identified for them.”
In his letter, Mr Khan has written :“It is pertinent to mention that air pollution does not recognize geographical boundaries. At any point, air pollution is contributed by several sources even from long distances. Since the NCR is a contiguous area with high population density and multiple pollutant sources, it is difficult to pinpoint and isolate the source of pollution in Delhi alone.
Most notably, crop residue burning also contributes to high levels of pollution in Delhi. There are reports about scientific studies that indicate Delhi is receiving pollution from neighbouring towns and industries present in NCR.
It is important that comprehensive, coordinated and integrated efforts are required to improve the air quality in Delhi while accounting the emissions from nearby states and from Delhi itself to understand a casual relationship between emissions and impact on air quality.”
Mr Khan has requested the union minister to convene a meeting of various stakeholders in the NCR region :“Several towns of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh fall within the NCR and may I request you to ask them to set-up joint check posts well within their territories to ensure that overloaded vehicles can be checked and turned back before they enter Delhi and prepare an action plan on the lines of the one under preparation in Delhi.
It is requested that the union ministry of environment, forest and climate change takes up the initiative to coordinate source specific pollution control activities in a holistic manner to check the sources of emission in the NCR. Such efforts will improve the air quality not only in Delhi, but in the entire NCR.
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