The Delhi government’s plan to start an odd/even number vehicle rationing scheme is one of the major steps to counter the city's severe pollution levels. The scheme, however, is part of a slew of measures that the government has planned.
Talking about other initiatives taken by his government yesterday to tackle pollution, Mr. Kejriwal said vacuum cleaning on all Public Works Department (PWD) roads will begin from April 1 and grass will be planted on side kerbs and central verges of all the arterial roads to remove dust.
Dust is one of the major contributors to the pollutants that choke Delhi. In its emergency meeting on Friday, the government had noted that dust arises also from kuccha parts of the road berms, central verges and open spaces falling within the right of way of the roads.
The government has promised that extensive horticulture works shall be undertaken by the PWD from January 1, 2016 with the objective to ensure that open areas prone to generating dust are greened and do not contribute to the dust.
Mr. Kejriwal said tenders will be floated very soon to procure vacuum cleaners from abroad as such machines are not available here.
The Chief Minister said Euro VI emission norms will be implemented in Delhi from 2017 as against Centre’s plan to make it mandatory from 2019 even as his government had decided to shut down the Rajghat and Badarpur thermal power plants.
While trucks and other heavy commercial vehicles entering Delhi would be checked at various entry points, timings for their entry would also be pushed up to around 11 pm instead of the current deadline of 9 pm.
A large number of outside trucks that enter into Delhi are found to be polluting the air as they do not meet the Delhi government's ‘Pollution Under Control’ norms.
“We will ensure stricter enforcement in ensuring issuance of pollution under control certificates at petrol pumps through use of a computerised system,” Mr. Kejriwal said. He also added that people burning garbage would be fined as part of measures to control pollution.
The government have also now decided to crowd-source complaints that are related to visibly polluting vehicles and of burning of bio-mass, garbage, leaves, etc. using IT technology.
