MCDs need to set up air quality monitoring cells: Delhi Chief Secy

NEW DELHI: Vijay Kumar Dev, Chief Secretary, Delhi has directed all the municipal corporations of the city to establish special cells to monitor air quality in real time. He also directed the corporations to deal with air pollution at 28 major intersections of the city. He also called for massive drives which promote impounding of vehicles causing pollution and apprehension of those guilty of burning waste in the open. Dev said, “Commissioners of the corporations will be monitoring the situation on an hourly basis through the cell. The existing cells should be upgraded to facilitate hourly monitoring.”

Traffic police and Urban Development department would be responsible to maintain a smooth traffic flow at the major traffic intersections of the city.

“A massive drive should be carried out to impound the polluting vehicles. Marshals should be deployed at traffic inter-sections where congestions are being reported or which have been identified as hot spots,” directed the Chief Secretary.

In order to track the illegal usage of generators, he also instructed power companies of Delhi to inform Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and municipal agencies beforehand regarding their scheduled power cuts.