Centre to hold high-level meeting on air pollution today

Environment Secretary CK Mishra will hold a crucial high-level meeting on air pollution on Monday.

The meeting is expected to be attended by Chief Secretaries of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. This comes amid the spike in pollution levels in Delhi-NCR in the last few days mainly due to stubble burning by farmers in Haryana and Punjab.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Power and Ministry of Agriculture are also slated to participate in the meet.

The high-level meeting comes after lawmakers and bureaucrats had skipped the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Urban Development meeting over air pollution in the national capital on November 15. The meeting was ultimately called off.

According to sources, prominent among those who were missing from that meeting were Vice Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Commissioners of three Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) and most importantly Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry.

Notably, BJP MP from East Delhi and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir also skipped that meeting.

Gambhir's absence drew flak from several quarters, including AAP, who slammed him for "choosing enjoyment" and visiting Indore for the first Test match between India and Bangladesh over a crucial meeting at a time when the air quality had deteriorated in the national capital and its adjoining regions.