Delhi govt mulls remote work to cut down winter pollution

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Thursday held a review meeting with experts to devise a winter action plan on air pollution, to check high pollution levels during the colder months.
Some of the suggestions made by experts during the meeting included experimenting with artificial rain, framing a work-from-home policy for government and private offices, staggered timings for offices, and using corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to purchase electric heaters for security guards, among other suggestions, Rai said.
Those present included officials from the environment department and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) as well as experts from organisations such as UNEP, EPC India, Clean Air Asia, Greenpeace, TERI, and IARI, among others.
The suggestions will be incorporated in this year’s winter action plan on air pollution, which will be finalised on September 5, the minister said.
According to Rai, this year’s winter action plan will focus on 14 problematic areas, which include dust pollution, vehicular pollution, stubble burning, open burning of waste, industrial pollution, utilising real-time source apportionment study, and increasing green cover, among other areas.
“The main suggestions included a change in the behaviour of people related to pollution. For this, awareness campaigns should be run. We are looking at policies to encouraging work from home in advance, even in the private sector. Instead of odd-even, we should apply the formula of voluntary restriction on vehicles and have different timings for different offices,” he said.
Rai said that just like in 2023, this year too the state government plans to carry out cloud seeding for artificial rain, adding that he will write to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday, seeking a meeting with experts from IIT Kanpur.
“The main objective of this meeting is to make the winter action plan more effective with the suggestions given by the experts. It was suggested that there should be artificial rain on ‘severe’ air days in Delhi. A letter will be written to the Union environment minister on Friday to call a meeting with all the concerned departments regarding the suggestion of artificial rain,” Rai said.
He also claimed that over the years, the number of good, satisfactory and moderate air days was on the rise. “Such days have increased from 110 in 2016 to 206 in 2023.”
Last year too, the state had approached IIT Kanpur to carry out cloud seeding, but the proposal was ultimately not carried out due to unfavourable meteorological conditions.
Rai said that separate action plans will be formulated for pollution hot spots in the city. “Experts have also given their opinion that by making separate action plans at all these hot spots, pollution should be reduced there, so that pollution in Delhi can be further reduced,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticised the Delhi government over its alleged silence on stubble burning in Punjab — the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in power both in the Capital and in the northern state.
“The Kejriwal government has completely failed to improve the air pollution situation; Delhi’s air only clears up for a few days when there is heavy rain or strong winds. While Gopal Rai makes daily statements about winter pollution, he remains silent on the biggest contributor to winter pollution — stubble burning in Punjab. Gopal Rai should answer whether he has held any meetings with his own party’s Punjab chief minister, Bhagwant Mann,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.