'Anti-pollution plan to combat Delhi's foul air to come up

A new anti-pollution plan to combat Delhi's foul air will soon be chalked out, much of which will be based on a 2012 blueprint prepared by the Sheila Dikshit government.
The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority today tasked the Delhi government and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to prepare a draft of the plan by next week.
Apart from the Dikshit government's plan, the drafting team will also refer to a 42-point action plan of the Union Environment Ministry and EPCA's own action plan in preparing the fresh consolidated roadmap.
"Things like Furnace Oil (FO), paddy burning, secondary particles will also have to be considered in preparing the new plan. The 2012 plan will act as a base and we will add to it," EPCA member Sunita Narain said.

The Supreme Court had directed the EPCA to prepare a comprehensive new plan by clubbing the ones being referred to. It will next hear the matter on March 6.
Meanwhile, two wheeler manufacturers today informed EPCA that as on March 31, they will have 5.4 lakh BS-III compliant vehicles in their inventory and declined to set a cut off date by which they expect to exhaust it.
However, EPCA, which had earlier fixed April 1 as the deadline, said the ban on sale and registration of such vehicles has to be "time-bound" and amnesty, if any, can be granted only to specific RTOs in places where old stock remains even after April 1.

A decision in this regard will be taken on March 20, EPCA chairman Bhure Lal said.