NEW DELHI: Delhi’s pollution season is round the corner, but is the government better prepared this time to keep smog episodes at bay? The city may be marginally better off now that the graded response action plan is in place, but that involves responding to pollution crises with emergency interventions. In reality, policies with long-term implications for the capital’s air are unlikely to take off before winter.
The Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution Control Authority submitted a comprehensive action plan with short-, mediumand longterm action points to the court in April. It had drafted the plan in consultation with Central and Delhi governments and other NCR states, and the Supreme Court is likely to decide on the enforcement of the plan on Wednesday.
Delhi’s pollution starts spiking from October, when Punjab and Haryana farmers burn paddy stubble. This is followed by the toxic pollution of Diwali festivities. Most of the shortterm steps in the plan could have helped curb pollution spikes like these. Experts have been warning time and again that Delhi needs to drastically lower emissions during this time, but many sources remain unaddressed. It is a period when accumulated pollution fails to disperse due to falling temperature and reduced wind speed.
Another thing that might not happen is the augmentation of public transport. Delhi has only 5,608 buses on the road though in 1998 the Supreme Court had directed at least 10,000 buses by 2000.
In 2015, Delhi government promised to induct 10,000 buses, but till date only 2,000 have been approved for procurement but not tendered yet.
Lieutenant governor Anil Baijal recently held a review meeting of various agencies on implementing air pollution curbs. Wondering why these were not in place already, he directed road maintaining agencies to put up signs displaying the names of agencies and official responsible for the stretches, while instructing New Delhi Municipal Council to create a standard operating procedure for dust control at construction sites.
Among the government’s major interventions discussed with EPCA, catching and penalising visibly polluting vehicles has not been planned yet and the zonal plans for a nonmotorised transport network to reduce dependence on polluting vehicles hasn’t started. As for implementing street design guidelines for footpaths, PWD has only appointed a consultant and plans are being discussed. Some traffic interventions such as intelligent traffic systems for lane driving, electronic monitoring of traffic violations and early alarm system for commuters during traffic congestion has also not been implemented.
“Only emergency response cannot help sustain air quality gains, ” pointed out Anumita Roy Chowdhury , head of Centre for Science’s Clean Air Campaign. “Systemic and comprehensive action on all pollution sources are needed for real reduction of pollution.
DTC officials claimed that parking is an obstacle to acquiring more buses. “The existing parking space in depots, where both DTC and cluster scheme buses currently park, is already under strain, “a senior official said. “We are looking for land to create more depots. “
