Kejriwal seeks Delhiites help to curb air pollution

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) In a move to counterbalance the level of pollution arising from Delhi's neighbouring states, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday asked the people of the national capital for help by following three simple steps.

"I have been tweeting about Delhi's pollution level since a month now to show that emission that arises in the city is within the safe limits despite the presence of vehicular, industrial and all other sources of pollution throughout the year. The pollution levels start to increase gradually at this time of the year as the farmers in the neighbouring states start burning their crop residues," Kejriwal said in a virtual address.

"I want to appeal to all the people of Delhi to help by contributing in three major campaigns. Firstly, last year we had launched a campaign called 'Red Light On, Gaadi Off', because keeping the engine on while stopping at red lights immensely increases the pollution level. This campaign which will again be launched on October 18 will help Delhiites in reducing pollution and saving fuel," the Chief Minister said.

"Second, we can all try to use public transports like bus, metro or carpool with others, and avoid using our vehicles at least once a week. Third, we had developed the Green Delhi app last year, which has resolved around 23,000 complaints so far. We all have to take the responsibility and report any kind of pollution that we see, be it industrial, vehicular or garbage burning. Our team will immediately act on the complaints," he added.

Quoting a research conducted by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association, Kejriwal said that the data has shown that switching off engines on red lights saves around Rs 250 crore annually and reduces pollution by 13-20 per cent.

With the onset of winter, Delhi's pollution level starts rising, mainly because of the decrease in wind speed over Delhi-NCR and stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Recently, the Chief Minister had announced a 10-point Winter Action Plan. While presenting the new staregy, Kejriwal had said that separate teams have been formed to keep a check on pollution arising due to waste burning and construction in the national capital.