Action plan marred by lax enforcement, EPCA to decentralise

The prevailing levels of air pollution warrants quadrupling of parking fees in Delhi, but laxity of the police and municipal bodies have come in the way of its roll out, the EPCA, a Supreme Court-appointed pollution watchdog, says.
The EPCA has now decided to write to the Delhi Police Commissioner to crackdown on illegal and unauthorised parking lots in the city, Sunita Narain, a member of the EPCA, said.
Parking lots in Delhi are maintained by the three civic bodies and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority has also decided to decentralise powers for better implementation of plans listed under the Centre-notified Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP).

Bhure Lal, the chairman of the apex court-appointed pollution watchdog, will write to the chief secretaries of the NCR states - Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan - directing them to designate nodal officers at the district levels to enforce measures under GRAP when pollution hits severe levels.
Presently, it takes at least 24 hours for the EPCA's directions to reach the district level via state-level authorities.

But once the nodal officers are identified, the EPCA will be able to directly order them, thus bringing down the time required for authorities to roll out emergency measures.
We will create a manual, listing the names of the district magistrates of the NCR districts and the designated nodal officers, Narain said.

Parking fee hike was among the emergency steps enforced when pollution had climbed to 'severe plus' category in Delhi and NCR region on November 8.
But it had to be withdrawn after the Delhi government complained that hiking parking charges had turned out to be counterproductive as it resulted in people resorting to roadside parking.
Under GRAP, parking fees are to be hiked by three to four times when air quality turns 'very poor'.
Delhi has been experiencing 'very poor' air quality over the last four days but this measure, aimed at discouraging use of private vehicles, has not been enforced.