Appeal to the LG to not play politics over the lives of Delhiites; let them breathe clean air- Gopal Rai
The Delhi Government is making many efforts to reduce the city’s rising pollution levels. The GRAP System has been implemented by the Delhi Government, and an anti-dust campaign is being carried out. Bio decomposer is being sprayed on stubble to cope with it, and strict steps are being made to prevent biomass waste. Environment Minister Shri Gopal Rai said, “’Red Light, On Gadi Off’ campaign was being run by the Delhi government for the last two years to check vehicular pollution in Delhi. But it is unfortunate that this time the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi does not want to start this public awareness campaign at any cost. The Lieutenant Governor is doing politics with the breath of the people of Delhi.”
“The dates were excused yesterday, and it was claimed that a week was a holiday. However, LG wanted to put a halt to this campaign. It was claimed up until yesterday that this file included the date October 31. Today they sent it back and asked us to resubmit it. Simply put, this implies that the “Red Light On, Gaadi Off” campaign will not be able to launch on January 31st as originally planned. Today, the justification offered was that the campaign’s effects had not been researched when it was first released in previous years. When the Delhi government launched this campaign two years ago, it was conducted after fully comprehending everything”, he further added.
Environment Minister Shri Gopal Rai said, “The Central Government oversees the CSIR as an institution. In a paper presented in 2019, researchers from the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), a unit of the CSIR, calculated that every day, 9036 litres of petrol, diesel, LPG, and 5461 litres of compressed natural gas was wasted at Delhi’s 960 red light signals. Similar to this, Urban Abysson conducted a study on the pollution at traffic lights in Pune and found that red lights there release more than 17,000 tonnes of PM 10. Due to the fact that Delhi has four times as many automobiles as Pune, Delhi emits 60–70 thousand tonnes of PM10 when a red light is turned on. This campaign’s objective was to reduce the unnecessary 60–70,000 tonnes of PM 10 released within Delhi. In Delhi, we are conducting numerous campaigns. We are sprinkling Delhi with water. LG will now assert that in order for us to allow water to be sprayed, you must first describe the effect that it will have. Construction sites in Delhi are shut down when there is a serious condition. By Supreme Court order, Grap is put into effect. LG will now state that you must conduct research into the effects of stopping this construction before you can expect us to agree to do so. According to the Supreme Court, fireworks should be banned. LG would object, saying that I won’t sign the ban until I have studies demonstrating what the impact of the ban on firecrackers will be. We make every effort to reduce pollution inside Delhi. Whether it is an anti-dust campaign, biomass weaving, a truck on a construction site, or spraying of bio decomposer, the sole goal of these programs is to reduce the sources of pollution.”
He further said, “In addition, he claimed that breathing problems could arise if Civil Defense personnel were used in this campaign while deployed on red lights. On this I want to state that Civil defence volunteers are deployed with masks when they are stationed at junctions. Although Delhi Traffic Police officers are always on duty at these junctions, these volunteers are only stationed there for this campaign. I want to know whether the LG will remove these Traffic officers from redlights as a result of this. Returning this file by giving such an argument is proof that they are only doing politics. But we are concerned about the people of Delhi. We will put up this file again and we are sure that LG Sahab will not do politics on the issue of pollution in this critical time and will give his consent.”
