Delhi govt. restarts ‘Green War Room’ to fight air pollution 

Delhi restarts 24x7 'Green War Room' for Winter Action Plan, monitoring air pollution with real-time data analysis.

The Delhi government on Monday restarted its 24x7 ‘Green War Room’ to ensure effective implementation of its 21-point Winter Action Plan. The war room was launched in 2020 at the Secretariat for better inter-departmental coordination and round-the-clock monitoring of air pollution, which spikes in the national capital and adjoining areas every winter due to multiple reasons, including slow wind speed, stubble burning, and bursting of firecrackers.

Environment Minister Gopal Rai said this year, data collected through drones, real-time source apportionment study data, and satellite data on the smoke produced from stubble burning will be analysed in the war room.

As part of the real-time source apportionment study, data are collected over a period of time, and a model (software) is created to find the sources of air pollution in the city on a real-time basis by using air from the surroundings as input.

Mr. Rai said, like the previous years, citizens can connect with the war room and join the fight against air pollution through the ‘Green Delhi’ app.

In contrast to the Minister’s claim, the BJP’s city unit claimed that the Capital is about to suffer its worst-ever winter pollution as Delhi and Punjab “are doing nothing” to fight the two major causes of air pollution — stubble burning in the neighbouring State and construction dust in the national capital.

“Delhi may see the maximum imposition of GRAP regulation as nothing has been done to prevent the burning of crop stubble in Punjab,” said Delhi BJP spokesperson Anil Gupta.

He alleged that the Delhi government does not have any scheme to regulate building construction activity or to remove construction and demolition waste from the roads.