As the pollution level in the national capital is on the rise, farmers Haryana’s Rohtak continues to burn stubble on Wednesday night.
Delhi’s air quality improved through the day on Thursday after rainfall washed away pollutants, but authorities warned that the pollution level might increase again from Saturday.
The overall air quality index was recorded in poor category, according to the Central Pollution Control Authority (CPCB) data.
This is the first time since Diwali that the air quality has slipped into the poor category. The AQI had been oscillating between severe and upper range of very poor for the past one week, at one point even crossing the 600-mark post Diwali.
Haryana Chief Secretary D S Dhesi on Sunday said it was unfair to blame the state for Delhi’s poor air quality, saying that crop residue was burnt only on one per cent of the total sown area of paddy.
Dhesi alleged that the role of Haryana was being adversely publicised regarding the pollution in the National Capital Region.
“But, actually, crop residue was burned on only two per cent area of total sown area of paddy in Haryana during (the) last year whereas this year, the crop residue was burned on only one per cent area,” he said in Hisar, according to an official release.
Dhesi said the role of Haryana and its farmers was negligible, but rumours were being spread in this regard. “It is being projected that farmers of Haryana are burning crop residue in each and every agricultural field.”
The chief secretary said in Haryana, paddy crop was mainly sown on 13 lakh hectares area in 10 districts.
“As per the data received from HARSAC (Haryana Space Applications Centre, Hisar) the crop residue burning cases were reported on 12,473 places in the state in 2017.
“Similarly, this year such cases were reported on 7,273 places which is only one per cent of the total area,” he said.
Dhesi added that crop residue-based compressed bio gas plants would be established Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Jind. Apart from this, an MoU has been signed between the Indian Oil Corporation and Renewable Energy Department, under which crop residue would be purchased from farmers for these plants and energy would be generated out of it.
Later, presiding over a meeting of administrative officers of Fatehabad, Sirsa and Jind districts, Dhesi said the seriousness of administrative officers and representatives of panchayati raj institutions would be evaluated on the basis of their contribution in curbing burning of crop residue.
Dhesi said the period between October 15 and November 25 was very crucial as this is the period when maximum cases of crop-residue burning are reported.
In view of this, the chief secretary constituted two committees — a committee comprising of members of the revenue, agriculture and district development and panchayat departments would monitor the sensitive villages; whereas the committee of sub-divisional officer and tehsildar would visit different villages of the district from time to time.
The chief secretary directed the deputy commissioners of Sirsa and Jind district to adopt the decision taken by the Fatehabad deputy commissioner of not issuing arms licences or renew old licences of those persons who are found guilty of burning crop residue.
He said apart from issuing challans to people indulging in burning crop residue, FIRs should also be registered against such guilty persons. The Haryana State Pollution Control Board would send cases of farmers burning crop residue to the courts for trials.
On Thursday, the PM2.5 particles in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers level was recorded at 96 in the national capital, while the PM10 level was recorded at 177, according to CPCB data.
Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Greater Noida and Noida recorded “poor” air quality, while Gurgaon’s air quality was recorded in the “moderate” category, it said.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, and 401 and 500 severe.
Twenty-five areas in Delhi recorded “poor” air quality and 11 areas showed moderate air quality, CPCB said.
According to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, fire counts observed during the past 24 hours over northwest region of India were fewer (less than 100 counts).
“The impact of stubble burning in NW India is not significant over Delhi,” the IITM said.
According to the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting (SAFAR), the air quality improved significantly following sufficient rainfall early Thursday due to wash-away effect.
“Surface wind speed moderately increased but pollution level declined faster than expected as still weather conditions are not completely favorable except sporadic rain,” SAFAR said in a report.
“In addition to cleaning by rain, accumulative emission loading is relatively less which has led to drop in pollution. The AQI is likely to remain in poor range tomorrow but may slip back to very poor range thereafter,” it said.
EPCA Chairman Bhure Lal on Wednesday recommended to the pollution watchdog CPCB that it should implement either the odd-even scheme or impose a complete ban on non-CNG private vehicles if the air pollution level in Delhi increases again.
In a letter to CPCB member secretary Prashant Gargava, Lal said all cities, which have similar emergency plans – like Paris or Beijing – include restrictions on private vehicles, done by either number plate or fuel type or its age.
He said vehicles contribute as much as 40 percent of the total emission load in Delhi and roughly 30 percent in the region.
“In this situation, the only option is to look at either a complete ban on all private vehicles (without the identification of petrol or diesel), other than CNG and/or restriction on plying by number plate (odd-even),” he said.
In 2016, the odd-even scheme was enforced twice – January 1-15 and April 15-30 – in Delhi when vehicles having odd and even numbers were allowed to ply on alternate days as the air quality deteriorated.
The odd-even scheme is a part of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), emergency measures implemented in phases to combat air pollution. It came into effect on October 15.
(With PTI inputs)
Source: Zee News