Amid concerns over Delhi being categorised as the most polluted city in the world by World Health Organisation (WHO), lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung has constituted a high-powered committee headed by Chief Secretary SK Srivastava to look into the increasing pollution in river Yamuna and vehicular pollution in the city.
The high-powered committee will specifically look into two aspects — pollution caused by growing number of vehicles on the roads of Delhi and pollution levels in Yamuna because of outpouring of industrial and sewer waste in the river. The committee will examine all aspects of pollution, its cause, its levels, and suggest both long term and short term measures to be adopted to tackle the issue of pollution. At a statement issued by the l-G office, Jung said, “We cannot allow for pollution to grow unchecked. It is our moral responsibility to provide a healthy environment to our citizens.”
The high-powered committee will be chaired by the Chief Secretary and will have Special CP (Traffic), Delhi Police; Secretary (Environment); Commissioner (Transport) and Additional Secretary (Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC)) as its members. The committee has been empowered to co-opt members, both from the Government and the private sector, including NGOs. The lieutenant-Governor has directed the High-Powered Committee to submit its report to him within the next four weeks, so that suitable action can be initiated on its basis.
l-G had recently convened a meeting with the Chief Secretary and all senior officers of the Delhi Government, where he had expressed concerns over the growing levels of pollution in Delhi. At the meeting, Jung had directed the DPCC to ensure closure of polluting units and had instructed the concerned Commissioners to demonstrate compliance with DPCC orders.
However, the experts and environmentalists expressed their surprise saying that the city has already a panel appointed by the Supreme Court — Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) headed by Bhure lal — for monitoring the pollution. They said the existing committee has been submitting its report regularly to the Supreme Court and on the other hand, the Delhi Government has failed to finalise a policy to make the Capital’s air clean in the last two and half year.