Data shows lowest pollution levels after Diwali in past five years: Rai
Delhi Government continues to march on a well-laid path of 15-point Winter Action Plan. The government has firmly implemented all the moves it has planned so far and the outcome of those moves have been encouraging. Moreover, the government is not showing any signs of slowing down despite positive results and it is gearing up to further tighten the noose on pollution with the onset of winters.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai said: “Delhi’s fight against pollution bears success; data shows lowest pollution levels after Diwali in the past five years. We have deployed 150 mobile anti-smog guns to sprinkle water on roads across Delhi from today. There will be 2 anti-smog guns in each of the 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi to sprinkle water.”
Rai said: “Yesterday, Delhi celebrated the festival of Diwali with joy and magnanimity. People of Delhi celebrated the festival with so much sensibility and the way they followed the Supreme Court orders is extremely commendable. Every year, the level of pollution rises rapidly a day after Diwali but this year, the pollution level was recorded the lowest in the past five years on this day during morning hours. It’s all because of the collective efforts made by each one of us. In 2018, the AQI level of Delhi was 390, 368 in 2019, 435 in 2020 and 462 in 2021. Last year, the level of pollution in terms of AQI was 462 a day after Diwali, but this year, with the cooperation of people of Delhi, it got reduced to 323 on the same day. There has been a decline of 30% in pollution level as compared to the previous year. People of Delhi should be thanked for this. Though few people still bursted crackers, I am optimistic that they will also become more sensible. They will become more aware about safeguarding the environment and next year, we will see a further reduction in pollution levels through collective efforts.”
He continued: “Though the AQI level today is lesser than what it was in the previous years, a day after Diwali, but AQI level of 323 clearly indicates that with onset of winters, AQI level of Delhi will increase. We are running several campaigns in Delhi under the leadership of CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal to tighten the noose of pollution in Delhi. Be it the anti-dust campaign, the spraying of bio-decomposer or the awareness campaign against crackers burning, we have taken strict measures to curb pollution. Today, we are initiating another step to keep the pollution levels in check. We will run mobile anti-smog guns across Delhi, which will sprinkle water on roads.”
He added: “Last year, we deployed 10 mobile anti-smog guns on roads and it had a positive impact. Keeping that in mind, we are deploying 150 mobile anti-smog guns this year. There will be 2 anti-smog guns in each of the 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi. Moreover, an additional mobile anti-smog gun will be deployed to those hotspots of the city where the level of AQI is higher. These mobile anti-smog guns will sprinkle water between 10AM to 6PM every day. These vehicles will cover 10 kilometres of road on one side. The trucks which we have procured for this purpose have the capacity of storing 7000 litres of water at once. They will be refuelled for a second shift once they are empty.”
Rai said: “We are starting a mega-campaign of sprinkling water on roads of Delhi from today. I am optimistic that there will be an immediate reduction in pollution levels through this campaign. The campaign will run across Delhi and additional mobile anti-smog guns will be deployed on hotspots to keep pollution levels in check.”
He concluded: “The Punjab Government has made significant efforts to reduce the cases of stubble burning. As per the data, there were 3032 cases of stubble burning in Punjab on the day of Diwali last year. Similarly, Haryana had 228 cases and Uttar Pradesh had 123 cases on the same day. As per the figures released for yesterday, there were 1019 cases of stubble burning in Punjab on this year’s Diwali. In Haryana, there were 250 cases which means that the number of incidents have increased on this year’s Diwali. Uttar Pradesh also saw a rise in cases, as there were 215 reported incidents on that day of Diwali. The efforts made by the Punjab Government were clearly visible on the day of Diwali. The number of cases of stubble burning this year has reduced to almost one-third of the cases reported during the previous year on the same day.”
