EPCA tightens noose on civic bodies over open burning of waste

A Supreme Court-appointed pollution control panel today directed the municipal bodies in the National Capital Region to crack down on burning of waste in the open, which aggravates air pollution during winter.
The Environment Pollution - Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA), headed by retired bureaucrat Bhure Lal, also directed the local bodies to share action taken reports with it on a fortnightly basis.
The Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which lays down a series of anti-pollution measures, will come into effect on October 15.
It expressly prohibits burning of garbage in the open and in landfills, which dumping grounds such as Bhalaswa is infamous for.

The EPCA also directed the municipal bodies in Delhi to prepare contingency plans to tackle instances of blazes at the landfill sites in Delhi, all of which are operating beyond their saturation points.
"We will have to ensure stepped up vigilance. All the municipal bodies are directed to form vigilance teams that will undertake intensive patrolling and share the feedback reports with the concerned authorities including the EPCA," EPCA member Sunita Narain, who is also the chief of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said.

While around 40 teams of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have already been deployed in Delhi for heightened vigilance, there will be one nodal and four zonal teams in Gurgaon, which will submit weekly and fortnightly reports to the municipal bodies respectively.

Municipal bodies in Uttar Pradesh, Ghaziabad and Rajasthan were asked to put in place similar mechanisms by the first week of October.
Haryana officials informed Bhure Lal and Narain that Gurgaon and Faridabad, which does not have an organised garbage collection system at this point, will have a mechanism of proper collection and disposal by December.
In its last meeting, the EPCA had pulled up the municipal bodies for being under-prepared to deal with a potential spike in pollution levels across the region with the drop in temperature, which traps pollutants near the earth's surface.
The EPCA asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to issue a notification instructing the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) to make available electric heaters to security guards, who burn coal, waste or wood to keep themselves warm at nights during winters.

Delhi Environment Secretary Keshav Chandra, who was also present in the meeting,
identified fireworks during Diwali, burning of garbage, fire at landfill sites as the major factors that contribute towards spurt in pollution level during this period.
Bhure Lal warned the authorities not to allow any firecrackers from outside the NCR to enter the region, which the apex court has laid down in a recent order.
With the rolling out of the GRAP, the Badarpur Thermal Power plant, identified by an IIT-Kanpur report as one of the most polluting sources in Delhi, will close on October 17.
The panel was mulling over a proposal to roll out measures under the "very poor" category of the GRAP from September 25, instead of the scheduled October 15, in view of Delhi hosting a few matches of the U-17 FIFA World Cup, but it has been shelved for now.

Winter is a critical time in Delhi as meteorological conditions trap air pollutants near the earth's surface.
The volume of pollutants also rises alarmingly due to the burning of paddy stubble in Haryana and Punjab and bursting of firecrackers during the festive season.
Last year, the air quality of Delhi had plunged and a dense blanket of smog had kept the city shrouded for over a week in November, soon after the Diwali festivities, prompting the authorities to announce closure of schools among other emergency measures.