Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Thursday chaired a meeting of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) where it was decided that dust removal and mitigation will be the focus area of the multiple agencies engaged with the implementation of anti-pollution measures in the city grappling with deteriorating air quality. To take stock of the situation arising out of prevalent air pollution in the city, Saxena held a meeting which was attended by Chief Minister Atishi, Vice-chairperson of DDMA, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, Chief Secretary and all senior officers  and members of the authority. At the outset, the need to mitigate internal sources of air pollution in the city was emphasized upon by the LG to which all agreed.  Dust was identified as the biggest internal source of air pollution that could be addressed immediately, as even pollution arising out of vehicular emission, etc. required a long-term solution, a statement said. The LG pointed out that following a recent meeting of Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), he had directed Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to start the exercise of collecting dust-generating C&D waste, dried-up silt and cleaning road dust in a mission mode. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, after the meeting, said that the timings of the government offices in Delhi may be changed to control pollution. "There was discussion on changing the timings of both central and state government offices in Delhi to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads at the same time," he said in a statement. Delhi government has requested the LG to discuss with the central government the possibility of conducting artificial rain in Delhi on a pilot basis, so that action can be taken in emergency situations, he said. The LG has assured of the same. A statement by the authority said, The Chief Minister and Environment Minister acknowledged that this drive has helped salvage the situation to a large extent and directed officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) and Environment department to undertake similar exercises in a mission mode.  Cleaning of roads by MRS trucks with simultaneous washing as well as installing rotating smog-guns over high rise buildings had also been started and as of now, about 300 MRS trucks were operating with rotating smog-guns having been installed over 160 high rise buildings in the city, it added. In the meeting, Rai said that vehicles were entering the city despite alternate routes being there via the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways and enforcement was required to deter the same.  Similarly, the issue of strict enforcement with regards to open fires, garbage burning and compliance of PUC also came up for discussion and the lack of manpower for such enforcement was highlighted, it added.  Officials said that Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) presented a grim prognosis of air quality in the coming months. Air quality was projected to reach hazardous levels on multiple occasions when the CAQM will be forced to invoke GRAP IV measures, which also have a cascading impact on the economy, he said. He added that in the course of the meeting, the committee was informed about lack of adequate enforcement machinery which hampers their efficacy for various measures invoked by CAQM and the state government and other government agencies. In these months, multiple factors- transport, road dust, construction dust, stubble burning, waste burning, firewood burning etc. need to be addressed simultaneously.  This requires adequate manpower to be activated in a decentralized fashion, it stated.

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