As winter nears, PMO reviews steps being taken to prevent air pollution in region

New Delhi, October 13

Ahead of the winter season, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday held a high-level review of air pollution challenges with stress on close and active monitoring of stubble burning with the Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Chairing a high-level taskforce meeting on air pollution issues in Delhi-NCR, PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to PM, advised in-situ management of paddy stubble through crop residue management machines and use of bio-decomposers. Mishra advised the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) to improve the technology.

Elaborating on ex-situ management of paddy stubble, Mishra advised working on developing economic use of paddy straw and stressed developing adequate storage facilities for baled straw along with infrastructure for baling, briquetting and pelleting etc. for effective ex-situ utilisation of paddy straw.

Further, strict adherence to the stipulated targets for co-firing of biomass, with focus on paddy straw, in the thermal power plants biomass was also discussed.

The top bureaucrat called for a multi-pronged approach — procurement of biomass pellets, adopting the benchmark price issued by the Ministry of Power, expanding gas infrastructure and supply in the entire NCR region by March 2024, and ensuring expeditious supply of biomass on demand. Further, there should be intensified drives to replace overage vehicles, vehicles which are visibly polluting because of overloading and other reasons, and stricter implementation of actions envisaged in the Graded Response Action Plan by all concerned, he said.

MM Kutty, Chairman, Commission for Air Quality Management, said at the meeting that industries of the NCR were transiting to cleaner fuels and out of 240 industrial areas, 211 have been provided CNG connections. He said out of 7,759 fuel-based industries, 7,449 have shifted to PNG/approved fuels.

Kutty also flagged an increase in e-vehicles. Presently, 4,12,393 e-vehicles are registered in the NCR. The number of e-buses and battery charging stations has increased and there are 4,793 EV charging points in Delhi, he said.