Take steps to improve air quality in Amritsar: Residents

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 17

A discussion on “Air quality management in Amritsar” witnessed residents from the city coming together at a city hotel with a panel of experts here recently.

The group held a detailed discussion about the city’s escalating air pollution as well as actions taken by the government and people to ensure clean air in the city.

The event organised by EcoSikh, Voice of Amritsar and Clean Air Punjab, a citizen’s collective working on the issue of air pollution, saw over 15 prominent citizens across the city joining the discussion.

The discussion started with the group stressing on the fact that despite being ranked among the 20 most polluted cities in the country by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Amritsar, which is one of the Punjab’s nine non-attainment cities, has only one real-time monitoring station.

Some of the key demands raised by citizens for improving the city’s air quality during the discussion included demanding at least five continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations (CAAQMS), stricter implementation of the Rejuvenation of Auto-Rickshaws project in Amritsar through holistic interventions in consultation with auto-rickshaw driver unions to replace diesel rickshaws with ones running on cleaner fuels or even introducing e-rickshaws for public health and environmental protection.

Indu Arora, vice-president, Voice of Amritsar, said: “The air we are breathing is getting poisonous every minute and the health of senior citizens and children are a cause of major concern. Responsible citizens can’t ignore the issue of air pollution and its impact on the health of people.”

“Polluting and worn-out vehicles are still running on city roads and choking lungs of people from Amritsar and one of the immediate steps that needs to be taken is replacing diesel auto-rickshaws with those running on cleaner fuel or e-rickshaws,” she said.

Supreet Kaur, president of EcoSikh, said people of the city were being exposed daily to excessive amounts of pollution and toxic air. She emphasised that the poor air quality was impacting their health.

Expressing his concerns about rising air pollution in Amritsar, Yogesh Kamra, secretary, Amritsar Vikas Manch, said heritage cities such as Amritsar where population per sq km was higher within narrow streets, effects of such high level of suspended particles aggravate the situation further with more number of people getting exposed to toxic air.

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