As the NCR sees its annual spike in pollution levels, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai flagged what he said was non-compliance by neighbouring states with directions issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). Rai wrote to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav asking that compliance with a ban on entry of BS III and BS IV diesel buses into Delhi be ensured. “I went to Anand Vihar yesterday and all UP buses are polluting ones. the BJP governments are not listening to CAQM’s directions,” Rai said Saturday. When asked about the implementation of its directions, an official at the CAQM said, “Ensuring compliance to the desired levels is difficult, but it is not an issue. For enforcement, we have been engaged with CPCB and PCBs. There are flying squads. Besides restrictions, temporary closures of units are ensured till they comply with norms. We just implemented GRAP and are yet to get figures on compliance. State governments must ensure compliance. For other directions, there is a procedure for review. There are sub-committees, subject-specific meetings are held, and periodic reports are sought on level of compliance.” Experts, meanwhile, have a to-do list for the Commission. Mukesh Khare, professor emeritus at IIT-Delhi, who was part of the CAQM in 2020, said, “Measures being taken now are ad-hoc ones, which will never help. The immediate task should be to delineate an airshed, which involves research, and create an airshed administration cell — which can even be a unit within the CAQM — with qualified, technical experts. An airshed is an area where the sources of pollution work together — it will help us understand from where pollutants are being transported to Delhi, and to where they are traveling. The CAQM could look into such measures. The CAQM works like a regulator now and implements the Graded Response Action Plan. It has a more important role to play in managing pollution.” He added: “Emission inventory (which quantifies pollutants from different sources) is very important. The forecast model (of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s Air Quality Early Warning System) failed — it said air quality would remain ‘very poor’ when it turned ‘severe’ a few days ago. The reason for this is emission inventory data being used for the model is from 2018. Every year, sources and their emission potential will change. A protocol would have to be created for a uniform emission inventory.” Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, CSE, said, “Even though you may have stabilised the situation and several things have been done, we need a much deeper cut in pollution levels. The question is what more the Commission, the State governments, and the Centre need to do, and how quickly they need to do that to speed up action across sectors — transport, waste management. The Commission came up with a policy for the entire region in 2022. It had given an action plan for the NCR. Based on this, it has also been issuing directives from time to time, like the ban on coal use. Detailed coordination on each action point would now be critical – a policy has been made, directions are being issued, but whether the state governments have the infrastructure and finances to implement them, that will determine what impact this has.”
