By Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai spells out the decision to control sources of pollution and challenges on the way.
No odd-even plan in Delhi at the present but prep won’t take long: Gopal Rai
After setting the record of 1 of the cleanest air on the record due to the lockdown, Delhi saw the air quality dip to ‘poor’ on Wednesday. The forecast says that the concentration of pollutants could increase further within the coming days. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai spells out the decision to control sources of pollution and challenges on the way.
The government has taken a proactive tread on pollution and now the main target seems to get on tackling dust pollution. Does the govt have a selected decide to tackle vehicular pollution?
Are there plans to implement odd-even, love it was done last year, regardless of what the air quality was?
Odd-even isn’t implemented during a normal situation. When pollution increases, we speak to experts and choose. at the present, the purpose of view is that in COVID, pollution is often more dangerous. All possibility plans are going to be checked out. As for odd-even, it’ll be decided upon the timing and expert opinion. Last year, we had spoken to experts. at the present, there’s no plan for odd-even. If need be, preparations won’t take much time because it’s been done before.
The multiplicity of agencies has been a uniform roadblock within the implementation of policies within the city. In such a situation, how does one see the role of the Environment department?
It is true that the Environment department doesn’t have a task everywhere but we’ll have a dialogue with all agencies because the responsibility is ours, even without jurisdiction. The answer is dialogue. The CM met all agencies on October 5. I even have also been meeting departments and coordinating because fighting this battle without a collective effort is impossible.
The government has been hostile with municipal corporations. At a time like this, have you ever faced any problems in coordination with these agencies, which are crucial to the fight against pollution?
Pollution is everyone’s problem and it’ll need to be fought together. If problems come, we’ll hold a dialogue.
There are no problems thus far. we’ve met and everybody has submitted their plans.
A lot of workers left for his or her villages when the lockdown was announced and have started returning now. How difficult will it’s , in sight of the economic situation due to the pandemic, to order a construction ban or impose penalties on non-conforming industries?
How will you build the arrogance of the workers?
The implementation of those rules will only be done through dialogue. it’s important to continue business activities and it’s also important to save lots of our lives. Economic activity impacts all folks, as does pollution. we’ll find an answer through dialogue. the govt cannot do that alone, people need to be equal participants. We can’t fight this war alone… we’ll need to tackle things when it develops.
What is your future focus?
We are holding tree plantations on an outsized scale. Our target is to plant 31 lakh trees this year. Increasing Delhi’s green area may be a long-term plan. the electrical Vehicle Policy, which can reduce the amount of polluting vehicles on the road, maybe a long-term target. Our tree transplantation policy is additionally forward-looking because it is best to transplant trees instead of planting small saplings.
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