Kejriwal government ministers will descend to ground to ensure strict compliance of GRAP 4 rules
New Delhi: Environment Minister Gopal Rai convened a meeting with all Delhi government ministries to talk about pollution in the city. While briefing the media on the meeting, he stated that all Delhi government ministers will descend on Ground Zero to ensure strict adherence to the Group-4 regulations imposed by CAQM. In this regard, ministers have been assigned to different districts.
Environment Minister Gopal Rai has been given North and North East district, Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot has been given South West and West district, Revenue Minister Atishi has been given East and South East district, Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj has been given South and New Delhi district, Food and Supplies Minister Imran Hussain has been given the responsibility of Central and Shahdara districts and Social Welfare Minister Raj Kumar Anand has been given the responsibility of North West districts.
He stated that pollution levels in Delhi have remained stable for the past few days due to slow wind speeds in North India and continuous temperature drops, resulting in pollution particles remaining at a lower level. Therefore,to address pollution sources like vehicles, dust, biomass burning, and stubble, CAQM implemented GRAP-4 in Delhi-NCR. Under this, BS-3 petrol and BS-4 diesel vehicles are banned, and all types of trucks except essential goods and services are prohibited. Additionally, all construction work, both government and private, is completely banned in Delhi.
Rai further said that the news has been coming for several days that the rules of GRAP-4 are not being strictly followed in Delhi, and construction work and other activities are going on continuously. Therefore, today we held a joint meeting with all the honorable ministers of the Delhi government and discussed how to activate the departments held by the ministers. Because the kind of activeness that should be there in dealing with pollution is not visible among the officers and employees.So to deal with this negligence towards this issue, we have decided that all the ministers will descend on ground zero and ensure strict adherence to the GRAP-4 rules.
Recently, the Chief Secretary had appointed nodal officers for different districts. The ministers, along with the nodal officers of their respective districts, will monitor the officers working at ground zero and issue necessary guidelines. The ministers will visit mainly the borders like Singhu Border, Ghazipur Border, Gurgaon Border, Shahdara Border, Bahadurgarh Border and Kapashera Border.
Rai added that it has also been reported that building has ceased at construction sites in Delhi; however, recommendations established for closed sites, such as that all equipment should be covered, water should be sprayed, and so on, are not being followed. As a result, the minister will also visit these locations. Furthermore, authorities are being told to descend to the ground because the wind speed is likely to stay constant for the next few days.