PMO holds meeting on pollution in Delhi-NCR

A high-level task force meeting on air pollution in Delhi and surrounding regions was held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday, with governments of NCR states and other senior officials directed to ensure timely and strict implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap), officials aware of the matter said.

Chaired by PK Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, the meeting was held to assess the readiness of all stakeholders ahead of winter, where air quality touches “severe” levels, choking much of the region in a thick haze of toxic pollutants. In the meeting, directions were issued for chief secretaries of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to rigorously monitor and implement action plans aimed at elimination of stubble burning in their respective states, while stressing on the need for these states to also shift towards electric vehicles. For this, directions have also been issued to develop substantial EV charging infrastructure in NCR.

“The principal secretary has also requested the chief secretaries of NCR to augment their e-bus services. The PM eBus Sewa scheme aims to increase e-buses in the country by adding 10,000 such buses in total,” said an official, part of the meeting.

On problem of stubble burning, which leads to a spike in pollution in Delhi-NCR when northwesterly winds are strong, Mishra said full utilisation of crop residue management (CRM) machines was the need of the hour, while also strengthening the supply chain for ex-situ management.

“Strict enforcement is needed against violators, with appropriate penalties and record entries,” Mishra directed during the meeting.

Other instructions to states include greening drives and a strict enforcement of restrictions or bans on firecrackers in the region. The Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas was also urged to expedite collection of biomass and accelerate construction of compressed biogas (CBG) to manage residue effectively.

Other than chief secretaries of states, the meeting was attended by cabinet secretary TV Somanathan, Delhi Police Commissioner and officials from the ministries of environment, agriculture, power, petroleum, road transport, housing and urban affairs and the animal husbandry ministry. CAQM’s chairperson Rajesh Verma, who was also part of the meeting, shared data on the preparedness for the upcoming stubble burning season, stating estimates show around 19.52 million tonne of paddy is expected to be generated in Punjab and 8.10 million tonnes in Haryana.

“Punjab plans to manage 11.5 million tonnes of its paddy straw through in-situ crop residue management and the rest via ex-situ methods. Haryana will similarly manage 3.3 million tonnes in-situ and use ex-situ methods for the remainder,” Verma stated in the meeting, adding over 1.5 lakh CRM machines will be available in Punjab and over 90,000 in Haryana. Similarly, 24,736 Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) are in Punjab and around 6,794 in Haryana. He added out of the 240 industrial areas in NCR, 220 has shifted to clean gas.

Last week, the Commission for Air Quality of Management (CAQM) in NCR revised GRAP — an emergency-based action plan ahead of the winter season, adding more measures in the ‘severe’ or stage-3 of the plan. This included restrictions on inter-state buses that are not electric, CNG or BS-IV diesel and higher; restrictions on Delhi-registered BS-3 diesel Medium Goods Vehicles (MGVs) in Delhi and BS-3 Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) from outside Delhi.