Clean Air Campaign: 300 challans issued by Delhi traffic police in a day

Over 300 challans were issued on Tuesday under the 'Clean Air Campaign' - a joint venture of the Environment Ministry and the Delhi government to combat air pollution in the national capital.

Under the campaign, 70 teams comprising officials from Centre and Delhi government, municipal corporations, pollution control boards and others have been formed to monitor causes of pollution and initiate remedial measures, including on-the-spot penalaction against serious polluters.

The two-week-long campaign will continue till February 23.

"Around 310 challans have been issued today. Around 810 instances of violations have been noted by the teams," the environment ministry said.

A maximum 441 violations were noted under construction and demolition activity while 72 instances were found under traffic violations.

A day-long workshop on technological innovations for air pollution mitigation in the environment ministry was also held today.

The workshop focused on air pollution mitigation in ambient air and also its mitigation from pollution sources. Technological innovations for developing low-cost sensors and other devices for measuring pollution were also discussed.

Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said, "A synergy has been established between the four ministries and departments related to science and technology."

He said to tackle pollution, it is necessary to identify and pinpoint its causes and pose the problems before the scientists.

Environment secretary C K Mishra said the government, industry, civil society and other representatives must sit together and chalk out a programme that can aid in mitigation of pollution.

He said the solutions being applied must be tested and whether we are moving in the right direction.

"We must create a system to reach out to the people seamlessly, put in place a framework for implementation and zero in on appropriate technology, out of the basket of technologies available," Mishra said.

Ministry of Earth Sciences Secretary Rajeevan pointed out that air pollution is caused by both human activities, as well as weather and climate-related factors.

Any solution to the pollution problem is possibly only through a collective effort by all the organisations concerned, he said, adding, "Public should be involved as much as possible.