NEW DELHI:
Referring to the pollution levels in the Capital, Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said that the number of “good days” had gone up in Delhi and the “bad days” declined.
Replying to queries in the Rajya Sabha, he said, “As far as pollution in Delhi is concerned, over the last two years, continuously, the number of good days for Delhi have improved and the number of bad days have decreased.”
Quoting findings of an ICMR study, he said that from 1990 to 2016 there has been a 23.4% reduction in the illnesses caused due to pollution.
Asked whether the government has carried out a study to assess the number of advisories issued by foreign countries against travel to India due to pollution and their impact on tourism, he said an environmental health profile study was being conducted in 20 cities.
“We have a very ambitious programme, which involves multiple stakeholders and in the last two years itself, we have increased the forest cover in the country by about 7,000 sqkm and multiple Ministries are involved in handling this issue,” the Minister said.
He also said that it was “debatable” whether the level of pollution overall has increased or not. Meanwhile, a task force has been set up to devise a strategy to develop an early warning system for air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the government said on Monday.
Minister of State for Environment, Mahesh Sharma said the task force, which met in July, has representatives from expert institutions.
“A task force under the chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Earth Science (MoES) with representatives of expert institutions has been set up to build a strategy for developing an early warning system on air quality as well as the dissemination of warning to public,” Mr. Sharma said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister said a meeting of the task force was convened on July 28 and accordingly, “MoES is coordinating the development of an early warning system for air quality over Delhi and NCR region”.
He also said the development of an early warning system for air pollution is aimed at further strengthening the air quality forecast.
