Public transport coming to Delhi should be electric or CNG-operated: Gopal Rai

New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Friday urged the Centre as well as his counterparts of the states in NCR zone to ensure all modes of public transport coming to Delhi are either electric or CNG-operated.

The minister said this during a joint meeting of the Central (environment minister) and the environment ministers of NCR states through video conference.

Rai also requested his counterparts to check the incidents of stubble burning in NCR. 

"Many industrial units in NCR states are still running on polluting fuel and they should be converted to piped natural gas immediately," he said during the meeting. 

He further requested to convert the heavily polluting brick kilns running in NCR states into zig-zag technology and to reduce dependency on diesel generators, 24-hour electricity should be ensured for all housing societies in NCR states. 

After the meeting, the Environment Minister said that according to the CAQM (Commission for Air Quality Management) report, the number of good days in Delhi in 2016 was 109, which was 163 last year. 

"The number of good days this year has gone up to 205," he said. 

He further said that the coming two months are very sensitive in terms of pollution. 

"Whatever guidelines are issued, whether they are of the Central government, or of the CAQM or of the concerned state governments, it is very important to implement them properly, otherwise proper results will not be achieved. Therefore, we have to create a proper system so that the guidelines issued can be implemented properly," Rai said. 

Rai said that Delhi has imposed a complete ban on firecrackers, and the NCR states should also impose a similar prohibition on firecrackers. 

"The states should also ban the licence, production, storage and release of firecrackers from now on," he said. 

Rai further said the Delhi government has been using anti-smog mobile vans to deal with dust pollution, which was providing satisfactory results. 

"That's why the NCR states are also requested to use anti-smog mobile vans in their states," he said.