No data to prove foul air in Delhi driving people to suicide: Javadekar

Javadekar said that the ambient air quality in Delhi had been affected due to vehicular and industrial pollution, construction-related activities and road dust. “The other reasons include discharge of large quantities of untreated or partially treated sewage and generation of huge quantum of municipal solid waste,” he said.

The minister said there is no study to confirm that the practice of burning harvested crops in nearby states is also contributing to air pollution in Delhi.

“There is no conclusive study available to establish that the long-range transport of plume of fine particles or various gaseous pollutants due to stubble burning from neighbouring state would always drift towards a particular city. It would depend upon prevailing meteorological conditions including wind direction, wind speed, and mixing height. Stubble burning is practised by farmers in various states which causes pollution,” he said.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Javadekar said that a mixed trend of results had been observed after monitoring the ground water quality in the vicinity of eight landfill sites in Delhi. They were monitored for 15-physico-chemical parameters apart from six heavy metals.