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New Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR: Will it help me curbing Pollution?

 

The Government of India has notified an ordinance to constitute a Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region (NCR) and its adjoining areas. The ordinances also disbanded the Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) that was setup in 1998 for curbing air pollution in the NCR

Key Mandate of the new Commission

The new commission will supersede all existing bodies including the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as well as state governments in matters of air pollution mitigation. Though, the powers of CPCB and its state branches will continue. However, in case of any dispute or a clash of jurisdiction the commission’s writ will prevail specific to matters concerning to air pollution. It has been witnessed that during winters the problem of air pollution becomes worse due to the practice of stubble burning in the adjoining states such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and western part of Uttar Pradesh. A regulatory mechanism for Stubble burning is being put into place for the first time.

Powers of the newly formed Body

The commission is supposed to look into the problem of deteriorating air quality in the Delhi NCR. For that the commission has the power to take all such measures, issue, direction and entertain complaints for the purpose of improving and protecting the air quality. The commission is also empowered to impose fine and imprisonment for the violation of any rule. There has been a provision of appellate body and the appeals from the order of the commission will go to National Green Tribunal.

Composition of the Commission

The commission will be an eighteen member body with 6 permanent members from various fields of environmental science and technology. The representatives from the adjoining states of Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and Rajasthan have also given membership in the newly formed body.

What is Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA)?

EPCA is constituted on the orders of the Supreme Court of India. It was formed in the year 1998 under section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act.1986. The authority was mandated to control air pollution in the NCR region and implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). EPCA has the power to take action Suo-moto or on the basis of complaints made before it.

Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)

GRAP is a set of measures which will be taken by different government agencies to prevent worsening of air quality of Delhi NCR. GRAP prevents PM10 and PM2.5 levels to go beyond ‘moderate’ National Air Quality Index (NAQI).

Causes of air pollution in Delhi

According to latest ranking of Greenpeace India report, Delhi is the 10th most polluted city in India with pollution level is over 11 times of the PM10 limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The situation becomes even worst during the winters. Let’s see some of the reasons for Delhi’s air toxicity.

·         Stubble burning: Every years with the beginning of Rabi season in the northern India, farmers in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh took to stubble burning to clear their fields for sowing wheat and mustard. Stubble burning is blamed for causing a thick blanket of smog in Delhi NCR during winters.

·         Vehicular emission: The CPCB and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in their study have found out that vehicular emission as major contribution to Delhi’s increasing air pollution.

·         Topography: Delhi lies in a land locked Indo-Gangetic region. It doesn’t have a geographical advantage of having high amounts of humidity that eastern, western, or southern parts of the country enjoy. That is why the dust pollution stays in the air for longer duration causing irritation of eyes, asthma and other breathing problems.

·         Construction Sector: Large scale construction in Delhi-NCR is another culprit that is increasing dust and pollution in the air. Various norms have been set to curb the pollution from construction sector but their implementation is not being seriously aadministered.

·         Fire Crackers: Despite the Supreme Court ban on crackers sales, fire crackers were a common sight in this festivals like Deewali. Though NEERI has come up with a better solution of Green crackers which has minimum emission of toxic gasses but their sale is low in the Delhi NCR.

·         Dust stream from gulf countries: During the smog in the year 2017, the dust stream from gulf countries was also seen as the reason which enhanced the already worse condition.

It will be interesting to see how far the newly constituted body will be successful in curbing the air pollution. There are so many initiatives has been taken in the past by the Central as well as the Delhi government such as Odd-Even scheme, introducing CNG busses, strengthening metro connectivity but the problem remains the same. This time when the world is already facing the worst health crisis of century, no government can afford to deal with another health related problem. So it is important that the commission should implement all the measures with at most priority basis and solve the problem of air pollution in Delhi NCR and more of such body should be constituted for other parts of India as well.

 

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