This story is from November 21, 2018

Study to help Chandigarh fight air pollution proves too costly

Study to help Chandigarh fight air pollution proves too costly
The air quality index (AQI) was above permissible limit in 2017.
CHANDIGARH: The UT administration has rejected the proposal to conduct source apportionment study, which was to help the administration in preparing data to quantify proportion of various elements to determine the overall level of air pollution. The reason behind rejecting proposal was high cost.
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According to UT officials, last year the UT Environment Department representatives held a meeting with officials of Union Environment Ministry.
In the meeting, it was discussed that for conducting the study in four different cities, IIT Kanpur had procured Switzerland-made monitoring devices at a cost of Rs 5 crore each. It was proposed to install one such device in Chandigarh.
The reason behind installation of device was to help the administration in source proportion, which will be further used to prepare an action plan for countering the problem.
At present, the local administration does not have any data to quantify proportion of various elements to the overall level of pollution.
Debendra Dalai, director environment, Chandigarh administration, said as the cost was high therefore, the proposal was turned down.
Recently, the union government had set up a target for reduction of pollution. Thereafter, the UT administration has decided to prepare a comprehensive action plan.

Chandigarh is in the list of 100 cities identified on the basis of level of pollutants such as NO2, PM2.5 and PM10 by the central government for reduction of pollution level. The government aims at cutting pollution level by 35 % in the next three years and 50% by the next five years.
The officials found out that dust, effects of pollen due to greenery, temperature effect, industrial surroundings and vehicular density are the main reasons behind high levels of pollution.
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About the Author
Rajinder Nagarkoti

Rajinder Nagarkoti is Principal Correspondent with The Times of India, Chandigarh. He covers Chandigarh Administration and CBI, NIA courts in Panchkula.

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