In a first, three states including Delhi, will meet to discuss the strategy to combat air pollution effectively. The move has come after reports on air quality assessed that emissions from the Delhi-NCR contributed the most to the city's pollution.
According to officials in the Delhi government, the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) will convene a meeting with the Chief Ministers of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab at Vigyan Bhawan on December 20.
The Board functions under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and the meeting will be presided over by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
While representatives of these states and Delhi meet routinely to discuss the measures taken by each on the issue, sources in the government said this will be the first instance when CMs will hold a meet to discuss solutions for the alarming air pollution levels here.
The meeting will take into consideration the measures recommended in the 2015 IIT-Kanpur report to tackle the long-standing "poor" air quality in the Capital.
The study points out that major roads of the city have outgrown their capacity to handle the volume of vehicles, causing hours of traffic jams, leading to massive amount of polluting emissions. "The meet is crucial, in particular, because most of the measures that the Central Pollution Control Board had asked the states to take have not been implemented by them. The report clearly states that the industrial units located in the NCR, crop burning, and vehicular emissions to and fro the city contribute majorly to Delhi's pollution and, therefore, need to be curbed," a senior official said.
The states will put forward the "status" of the recommended measures taken by them, so far, he added. According to the environmental experts, the step has come at the right time.
"We cannot treat Delhi's pollution in isolation from the regions surrounding it. Moreover, there is a major volume of traffic crossing in and out the city's borders on a daily basis, emissions from which cannot be ignored.
The Centre should have intervened much earlier to make a policy on the matter. Even if they manage to get consensus on some measures now and implement them immediately, it can help deal with the pollution crisis this winter," said VivekChattopadhyaya, Senior Scientist, Centre for Science and Environment.
