The Central Pollution Control Board on Wednesday said it is in the process of identifying 10 hotspots in Delhi to check pollution levels. Of these, five will be based on Air Quality Index levels generated by monitoring stations and the other five on ground reports from the 40 teams it will deploy for the drive, the Hindustan Times reported.
“While some stations based on high AQI values, such as Anand Vihar, DTU and Shadipur, have already been identified, the reports of our teams are being collated to identify the other areas,” said A Sudhakar, member secretary of the board. He added that the teams had “spotted violations such as garbage burning, open construction sites and road dust, among others”.
Delhi and several parts of North India have been covered in a toxic smog since November 7, leaving the governments of the National Capital Region scrambling to bring in measures in the eleventh hour to bring down pollution levels. This had happened in 2016 as well.
The CPCB – India’s government-run pollution monitoring and control body – will hold a meeting with various agencies on Friday to finalise the plan. Once these 10 pollution hotspots and their sources are identified, the agency will direct civic bodies, the transport and public works departments as well as the Delhi Development Authority to take action to bring down the smog.
Earlier, the Supreme Court-appointed panel Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority had identified five such hotspots in the Delhi-National Capital Region. The authority had highlighted Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, Faridabad in Haryana, Ghaziabad and Noida Sector 125 in Uttar Pradesh and Anand Vihar in Delhi as the prime sources of pollution.
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