The Delhi government is planning to set up a control room, in the Environment Ministry at the Secretariat, to monitor air pollution and take quick actions, according to officials privy to the development.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai had also told a group of experts and officials in a conference earlier this week that the government is trying to set up a “control room” to handle “environment issues”, said the people who were part of the conference. “We are planning to set up the control room and discussions are going on about it, but it is still in the preliminary stage,” a government official privy to the development told The Hindu .
The official said that the Washington University at St. Louis, which is conducting a study on real-time sources of air pollution in the city, will submit its report in March and the control room would be established after it. “The idea is to respond quickly to air pollution depending on the sources of air pollution. We will have some staff dedicated to the control room,” the official added.
Programme details
Another official said that the control room will monitor other types of pollution also on “different screens”. It will also have details of different environment-related programmes being carried out by other organisations.
Mr. Rai had chaired the conference with experts from different institutes, including IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur, on Thursday and the Environment Department will submit suggestions from the experts to the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday or Wednesday. “The control room will also be discussed in the meeting and more details will emerge only after the meeting,” the government official said.
An aim to reduce air pollution to 1/3rd of the present level, in the course of next five years, was part of the 10-point ‘Kejriwal Ka Guarantee Card’ released by the Chief Minister in the run-up to the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections.
After coming back to power, the AAP government has said that implementing the promises in the guarantee card is their top priority.
