The Delhi Government demanded on Monday that the Centre conduct a fresh study to find out sources of emission and their respective share in polluting the national Capital's air.
Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain wrote to his Union counterpart Anil Dave urging him to instruct the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to undertake the scientific investigation. His letter came on a day neighbouring Haryana and Punjab rejected the Delhi Government's argument that biomass burning in their States was largely responsible for the Capital's foul air and alarming levels of smog.
"...Satellite imagery from NASA shows large scale crop burning and pollution from the industries of nearby States like Punjab and Haryana, which have tremendous amounts of pollution. In this scenario, it is imperative that the source of emissions and their respective pollutant load contribution is investigated for the entire NCR," Hussain wrote. This, he said, will ensure that States own up to their responsibility of protecting the health and welfare of our citizens and the socioeconomic well-being of their State.
Early this year, a team led by IIT-Kanpur Professor Mukesh Sharma had submitted a report titled 'Comprehensive Study on Air Pollution and Green House Gases (GHGs) in Delhi'. The widely quoted report had put the contribution of biomass burning in pollution within the city (during winter) at 17 per cent (for PM 10) and 26 per cent (for PM 2.5). PM 2.5 and PM 10 are ultrafine respirable pollutants that are harmful to the respiratory system and can lead to cardiac issues in human beings.
In the past few years, Delhi has gained the unfortunate reputation of becoming one of the most polluted cities in the world with different locations recording some of the highest levels of PM 2.5, PM10, NOx and Sox across the city.
"This is despite the fact that Delhi has taken multiple radical and progressive measures to fight air pollution like odd-even plying of vehicles, vacuum cleaning and water sprinkling of roads, creation of alternate sources of clean energy by shutting coal based power plants ad planning targeted solutions for construction and demolition, debris management, cracking down on waste burning, stopping pollution industrial units and funding the MCDs.