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Several steps taken by the Kejriwal government to curb pollution in the national capital seem to have borne fruit and pollution levels have gone down significantly, said Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai.
"As per the latest data there has been a significant decrease in pollution levels in the national capital," he said adding that pollution levels have improved for the poor, very poor and the severe categories. Air Quality Index from 0 to 100 is considered as good, while from 100 to 200 it is moderate, from 200 to 300 it is poor, and from 300 to 400 it is said to be very poor and from 400 to 500 or above it is considered as severe. "Nearly, thirty-two thousand places were raided to control dust pollution across the national capital region and fines of about four crore rupees were imposed," said Rai. Rai said that the increase in the sale of electric vehicles in the national capital has contributed towards the reduction of pollution in the capital. "The government has registered 86,197 vehicles so that there is less pollution from vehicles," the Delhi minister said. "Also, diesel vehicles, which are more than 10 years old and petrol vehicles of more than 15 years have been taken off the road," said the Minister. Just before the set-in of the winter in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced a 15-point program, which included controlling the pollution from stubble burning to pollution from vehicles. To keep a track of the air pollution in Delhi, Kejriwal has recently launched a supersite with "state-of-the-art" air analyzers and a mobile air quality monitoring system for a real-time "source apportionment study" to identify the sources of air pollution in the capital. The study on real-time source apportionment will assist in determining the causes of the rise in air pollution at any specific location in Delhi. The project has been initiated by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi and TERI. "The state government has been very serious and sincere in dealing with the problem of air pollution in Delhi. Electric Vehicles Policy, steps to increase the DTC busses fleet, electric busses, Tree Transplantation Policy, the increased forest cover of Delhi, Graded Response Action plan, campaigns like Red Light on Gadi Off and the planned mechanized sweeping of Roads, were maintained by the government," Kejriwal said. (ANI)
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