Officials failing to curb Delhi-NCR pollution to be punished

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New Delhi: The Union Environment Ministry and the states in the Delhi NCR region have agreed on a special campaign for rolling out anti-pollution measures, including taking action against negligent officials.

Environment Secretary C.K. Mishra said that the previous instructions of the Ministry and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have been reviewed and the instructions in the recent Supreme Court order have been collated into a roadmap and these will be implemented for the next 15 days. The best measures out of these will be used till the end of December on a sustained basis, he added.

After review meeting with officials of the states in the region - Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan - it was decided that negligent officials who are not able to curb pollution will be punished.

"Deliberate omission and negligence will not be tolerated. Accountability will be fixed on officials. Government will intensify its crackdown on those violating anti-pollution norms," Mishra said.

Pointing out the need for fully implementing the anti-pollution measures, he said that errant officials and those violating norms will be fined. He said the Environment Ministry and the CPCB are monitoring the situation and coordinating with the states on a daily basis.

He said that there has been a spate of bad meteorology in Delhi NCR due to which pollution spiked, adding that meteorology plays an important role in pollution due to Delhi`s geographical location. "We cannot change the meteorology, what we can do is to bring the level of pollutants down by taking effective measures," Mishra said.