Most air pollution complaints relate to construction, demolition activities, CPCB informs SC

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NEW DELHI: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) informed the Supreme Court on Monday that "highest number" of air pollution complaints in the Delhi-NCR pertain to construction and demolition activities, followed by burning of waste and road dust. Unpaved roads, traffic congestion and industrial emissions constitute other sources of pollution.

In an affidavit filed in the top court, the CPCB has said that spatial distribution of different types of air pollution complaints in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) indicated that the construction and demolition related pollution problem was more prominent in western and south-western parts of Delhi.

It said that while incidents of waste burning were highest in the eastern part of the city, in trans-Yamuna area, incidents of industrial emissions and illegal industrial activities were prominent in north-west areas followed by north-eastern part of Delhi.

The board said that garbage dumping incidents were high in eastern part of Delhi.

"As per analysis of complaints during clean air campaign, highest number of air pollution incidents relates to construction and demolition activities, followed by burning of waste, road dust, unpaved areas/roads, traffic congestion and industrial emissions," said the affidavit, which was filed before a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur.

With regard to the observation that Sameer App, which provides hourly update of national air quality index (AQI), crashes after lodging complaint of pollution, the board said that it is operational since 2016 and has been functioning satisfactorily.

"However, the complaints lodged on Sameer (App) will not get resolved automatically unless the agencies responsible respond to the same after taking necessary corrective actions," it said.

"Out of 3,337 complaints received on Sameer App during November 1 to November 24 this year, 923 complaints were resolved while 1,248 complaints were attended, 349 complaints were under investigation and 817 complaints are not yet attended by nodal agencies," the affidavit said.

The CPCB has also said that they had given wide publicity in newspapers about setting up of official social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook and e-mail account where citizens could lodge their complaints about pollution in Delhi-NCR. 

It said that as on November 23, the Twitter handle received 737 tweets and is being followed by 1,441 people with an outreach of 1.42 lakhs while the Facebook page has an engagement of 1,872 people with an outreach on 44,887 and 419 followers.

The top court is seized of matters in which several issues related to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR have been raised.

The CPCB had on November 1 told the apex court that it has created social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook where citizens could lodge their complaints about pollution in Delhi-NCR.