BMC says task forces formed to curb air pollution, oppn leader disagrees

“The BMC is not serious about controlling air pollution, as the BMC administrator had issued order that all BMC wards will form a panel of 12 officers from various departments to curb pollution, to be operational from April 1… but as of today, no such panels are formed,” said Raja in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

“This shows the seriousness of BMC towards controlling air quality for the betterment of Mumbaikars’ health, BMC is only prompt in issuing new tenders,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, civic officials said they have already formed their task forces in multiple wards, some of which have issued notices to those violating pollution control norms.

“The directions have been issued not only to the wards but to all the internal departments of BMC, along with private contractors, who have been appointed for various civic works. The committee formation requires time so they will take at least a few weeks to become fully operational across all 24 municipal wards in Mumbai,” said a senior official.

“However, we have already started taking action against violators for not implementing dust mitigation measures and we are collating data on the same. The ward officers have been told to submit data to us on 5th and 20th of every month, so hopefully by end of this month, we will get a picture,” said the official.

Earlier, after the seven-member committee submitted its recommendation to the civic administration, suggesting ways to bring down air pollution in Mumbai, the BMC administration had directed formation of ward-level task forces to take action against sources of air pollution.

The BMC administration has also asked ward officers to submit a detailed report twice a month outlining details of action taken against violators, who are not following dust mitigation measures.

The circular issued by Dr Sanjeev Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, states that the reports of action taken need to be submitted to him on 5th and 20th of every month.

In each ward, there will be three task forces that will identify different aspects of pollution caused from different sources like open burning of solid waste, unclean fuel used in hotels, eateries, bakeries and household, smoke emitted from crematoriums along with vehicular emissions and displaced road dust to be the primary contributor behind the worsening air quality of Mumbai.