Inside Delhi’s Winter Action Plan: Drone monitoring of hotspots, anti-dust campaign from Oct 7

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced “Winter Action Plan” on Wednesday to mitigate the impact of air pollution in the national capital. He said this year’s Winter Action Plan’s theme is ‘Milkar Chalein aur Pradushan se Ladein’. Rai said the Delhi government has formed a 21-point (instead of 14-point) Winter Action Plan this year.

Inside Delhi’s Winter Action Plan

Rai said that for the first time in Delhi, it has been decided to conduct drone monitoring of hotspots. “This will be done in real-time to find out the cause of the pollution,” he added.

Gopal Rai said there will be a ban on all kinds of firecrackers. “As of today, there is no prohibition on firecrackers. The prohibition will come into effect on the day a notification is issued. So, the notification has not been issued yet. So, in Delhi, the day a notification is issued, the prohibition will come into effect and continue till January 1…”

The Delhi minister said that the government will encourage work from home and voluntarily reducing the use of private vehicles. “If necessary, the odd-even [road rationalisation] scheme will be implemented, and artificial rain is also an option that we are exploring,” the minister added.

Some of the other measures include:

> Formation of a 6-member Special Task Force to stop causes of pollution.

> Anti-dust campaign will begin in Delhi from October 7 to control dust pollution. All agencies – private and government – have time until October 7 to comply. Action will be taken if they do not meet the parameters by then.

> All construction sites over 500 meters will have to be registered on the portal. Training will be imparted to all the workers at the construction site on how to follow anti-dust pollution guidelines.

> 85 road-sweeping machines are being deployed, and 500 water-sprinkling machines are also being used.

> 200 mobile anti-smog guns will be launched in every assembly constituency.

> Water sprinkling will be increased by three times in November-December to control the pollution level.

> The Delhi government also decided to award the ‘Harit Ratna award’ to individuals or agencies, private or government sector, which perform best in controlling air pollution.

> Four campaigns will be launched: ‘Harit Kalash Yatra’ (to increase awareness about plantation), E-vehicle parade, anti-pollution march and ‘Red light on, gaadi off’ campaign.

> Bio-decomposer will be sprayed across 5,000-acre land to control pollution due to stubble burning.

> Green war room and Green Delhi App will be launched.

> GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan) stages will come into effect. 

> 588 teams have been formed to control the open burning of garbage.

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