Setting a target to reduce one third of the pollution in the national Capital, in its third tenure of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Thursday chaired a meeting with Delhi Pollution control Committee (DPCC) officials.
Scientists, environmentalists and forest officials aired their views to prepare a comprehensive action plan to mitigate the impact of pollution. The Minister is expected to host another meeting with environment experts for assessing environmental solutions on February 27.
Curbing air pollution was one of the key agenda that AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal had promised to the people during Delhi Assembly elections. Kejriwal had listed its 10 guarantee schemes and had set a target to plant 2 crore trees across the city. Environment Minister will visit Washington University headquarter, near Major Dhyanchand stadium to understand the process of obtaining 'real time air pollution data'.
Soon after his meeting with officials, Rai addressed the media and said Delhi government has partnered with Washington University to obtain Real- Time data to monitor major air pollution source. "The environmental issues pertaining to Delhi have been a subject of constant deliberation and concern." "A lot of work has been done in this sector, as a result of which the Delhi government has been able to reduce around 25 percent of pollution levels in the city, along with the support of various agencies and the people of Delhi," said Rai.
According to Delhi government officials, a report prepared with Washington University on Delhi pollution source will be released in March this year
Elaborating further minutes of meeting with forest officials, Rai said, " I met with the environment department officials, DPCC scientists, forest department officials, to discuss the efforts taken by the Delhi government towards bettering the environment and the impact that it has created."
Rai mentioned about car rationing Odd-Even scheme and stubble burning in Delhi's neighborhoods during winters. "The implementation of the Odd-Even scheme has been a matter of friction since people believe that vehicular emissions do not constitute a major part of the air pollution levels in Delhi." "Obtaining Real-Time Data is necessary to monitor the real sources of pollution at a particular point in time. Until we can gather information about the sources of pollution, we will not be able to devise any mechanism for reducing these sources," he asserted.
To tackle pollution issue, it is first need to learn that source of pollution because there is no generalised source and we cannot work on decreasing or eradicating this pollution in generalized manner, hence we need to obtain Real-time Data to devise an action plan to reduce pollution," the AAP minister added.