CM meets experts to chalk out action plan to fight pollution in winter

Odd-even policy, pollution masks listed as short-term measures

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday met leading experts in the field of environment and sustainability for suggestions on making a strong Winter Air Pollution Action Plan for the Capital.

The experts, the government said in a statement, supported the efficacy of the odd-even policy in Delhi as well as the use of pollution masks as effective short-term pollution mitigation measures that can be taken by the government.

According to the statement, Ken Lee, executive director of Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, India, in the meeting, presented research and data on the impact of first odd-even policy experiment of Delhi government in January 2016.

“The January 2016 odd-even pilot reduced particulate air pollution concentrations by 14 to 16%. However, due to the possibility of compliance issues in the long run, it is perhaps best suited as an emergency measure during the winter when vehicle emissions are especially problematic,” Dr. Lee was quoted as having said in the statement.

Support for the vehicle rationing policy, the statement said further, also came from O.P. Agarwal, CEO, World Resources Institute, India, who was quoted as having said, “In the short term, the Delhi government should look into measures to restrict indiscriminatory use of private automobiles in the city, such as the odd-even scheme. The government [should] simultaneously focus on augmenting public transport in the long term.”

Experts, the statement said, also recommended that while the various long-term measures take time to come into effect, the use of pollution masks could be beneficial as an effective risk-mitigation measure.

The statement added that apart from the short-term interventions of odd-even policy and wider distribution of pollution masks, the experts recommended that the Delhi government continue its focus on long-term measures to reduce air pollution, like Electric Vehicle Policy, Bus Aggregator Policy, reforms of Pollution Under Control Centres among others.

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