New Delhi: Manual cleaning of road dust must be stopped immediately, the National Green Tribunal directed the Delhi government, asking it to introduce mechanical cleaning in the national capital.
The green panel said manual removal of dust from roads only regenerates pollution in the environment and police should ensure that wherever mechanised cleaning of dust is introduced, no vehicles should be parked on the roadside.
"The state government, public authorities and development agencies shall introduce vacuum cleaning machines for removal of dust and waste from the roads in a gradual manner. Cleaning of dust manually should be stopped. Mechanical cleaning of the roads should be introduced. Manual cleaning of dust only helps in regeneration of pollution and does not effectively cause cleaning of roads or air either," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson justice Swatanter Kumar said.
The tribunal noted there were seven major contributors to air pollution which include - construction activity and transportation of building material, burning of municipal solid waste, crop agriculture residue, vehicular pollution, dust on the roads, industrial and powerhouse emissions including flyash and emissions from hot-mix plants and stone crushers.
The NGT had earlier noted that nearly three lakh litres of petrol is burnt by vehicles stuck in traffic snarls or red lights in the national capital every day.
Directing the traffic police and other authorities to ensure there is no congestion on the roads here, the bench had said any person who violates the directions of the tribunal on vehicular pollution should be strictly made liable for payment of environmental compensation.
The NGT had earlier passed a slew of directions including setting up centralised and state level monitoring committees to prepare action plans to combat pollution in a bid to tackle environment emergencies.
It had directed that whenever air pollution reached severe levels, Delhi and its four neighbouring states would have to take a set of emergency measures including sprinkling water from choppers, stopping construction activities and shutting down polluting power plants and gensets.
The green panel said manual removal of dust from roads only regenerates pollution in the environment and police should ensure that wherever mechanised cleaning of dust is introduced, no vehicles should be parked on the roadside.
"The state government, public authorities and development agencies shall introduce vacuum cleaning machines for removal of dust and waste from the roads in a gradual manner. Cleaning of dust manually should be stopped. Mechanical cleaning of the roads should be introduced. Manual cleaning of dust only helps in regeneration of pollution and does not effectively cause cleaning of roads or air either," a bench headed by NGT Chairperson justice Swatanter Kumar said.
The NGT had earlier noted that nearly three lakh litres of petrol is burnt by vehicles stuck in traffic snarls or red lights in the national capital every day.
Advertisement
The NGT had earlier passed a slew of directions including setting up centralised and state level monitoring committees to prepare action plans to combat pollution in a bid to tackle environment emergencies.
Advertisement
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Delhi Government Must Take Blame For Permission To Fell 422 Trees: Supreme Court Over 1 Lakh Class 9, 50,000 Class 11 Students In Delhi Government Schools Failed Opinion: Opinion | Delhi's Education Reforms - How Enrollment Was Improved In Government Schools Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Windows Computers Lead To 'Blue Screen Of Death' Due To CrowdStrike Error In 1st Statement After Outage, CrowdStrike CEO Says... CUET UG Result Delay Jeopardized JNU Academic Calendars: VC Santishree Delhi Hospital Shooting Case: Cops Arrest 21-Year-Old Man, Recover Pistol "Probe China Link To Political Voices That Targeted Adani Group": Mahesh Jethmalani Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.