NEW DELHI: There is no dearth of action plans to tackle the deadly air pollution in the capital, but their implementation is far from satisfactory. Even basic steps such as deploying adequate number of buses, hiking parking fee, identifying designated parking spaces, a foolproof system for monitoring waste burning and ensuring waste management are stuck due to reasons best known to the authorities.
Now, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will submit a fresh plan to the Supreme Court. This includes 17 action points to deal with "very poor' or "severe" days in winter, six points for "poor" or "moderate" category days and several others for the rest of the season. CPCB had submitted a draft plan to SC on November 25, the final version will be submitted on Friday, clearly identifying the departments responsible for enforcement of these points.
But this one too may meet the same fate as the Centre's 42-point NCR plan announced on December 30, 2015 and the Delhi government's submission to the SC on December 16, 2015. The CPCB plan comprising drastic steps such as hiking parking fee by three-four times in winter, strict vigilance of industries and monitoring of DG sets doesn't have a compliance strategy. It does identify as to which agencies are responsible for implementation but is silent on fixing accountability. "There are no penalties for non-implementation," said an official, who is a member of the committee, which is drafting the plan.
The Delhi government, on other hand, suggested vacuum-cleaning of PWD roads and plantations and raising grass on unpaved area around roads from January 2016. The environment department would move an urgent appeal in NGT for issuance of orders enabling the department to impose stringent fine on polluting vehicles. Autorickshaws would be connected with the 'PoochhO' app. Bus lanes would be cleared of encroachments, all potholes on PWD roads would be repaired, etc. While these were not implemented at all, measures such as the odd-even scheme, monitoring waste burning and dust emission from construction sites were enforced.
"We cannot jump from one emergency plan to another. The rollout of short and medium-term plans is not happening at all. For example, where are the buses, where is the public transport infrastructure? What about the composting facilities to address the waste management problem? What about the 10 PWD roads, which were to be redesigned to encourage walking and cycling? These will have to roll out at least now," said Anumita Roy Chowdhury of Centre for Science and Environment.
Former environment minister Prakash Javadekar's NCR action plan developed in consultation with the states concerned were a dud too. Most of the steps of the 42-point agenda were not rolled out and the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) acknowledged this failure recently.
A number of other decisions were taken on November 7 in a meeting chaired by the current environment minister, Anil Madhav Dave. These include closing brick kilns with obsolete technology, preventing suspension of fly ash from fly ash ponds, a joint inspection of 17 categories of highly polluting industries in NCR to check their compliance with emission standards and strict action against violators.
But a poor implementation of these steps has weakened the fight against toxic air.
