New Delhi: The parliamentary standing committee on Environment, Forest and Climate Change met on Thursday, to discuss the impact of air pollution on the COVID-19 pandemic, under the chairmanship of senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh. The committee also took note of the measures taken by the Central Government under the National Clean Air Programme.
"Today, the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forest and Climate Change met with Ministries of Health, Environment, and Urban Affairs to discuss COVID-19 and air pollution. We will be meeting again soon," said Jairam Ramesh on Twitter.
While speaking to ETV Bharat, one of the members of the Standing Committee informed, "Steps taken by the Government to decrease air pollution have brought to our notice. We want the pollution levels should be decreased to such a level that the health of citizens won't get affected."
The rise in air pollution amid the COVID-19 outbreak has increased concerns of health experts on how much it can aggravate the current situation and cause respiratory issues. However, various initiatives have been taken by both Central as well as State Governments, including the implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) across Delhi-NCR to curb air pollution.
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When asked about the steps taken by the Government and whether these will be effective to decline air pollution levels, the standing committee member said, "It is a process. We are satisfied theoretically but we need to see what is happening practically. They have to implement these steps and our question is that the pollution goes down to such a level that it doesn't affect badly the health of citizens as COVID-19 and many other health hazards got affected indirectly by pollution."
The Air Quality Index of Delhi has reached 304, on Monday, under the 'very poor' category as per the SAFAR app of the Ministry of Earth Science. It is expected to deteriorate further and reach 321, on Friday.
The stubble burning cases had already crossed the mark of 7,000. This year, the number of cases is higher than those reported during the corresponding period of the past two years. The Central Government and State Governments have also suggested a stubble decomposer, prepared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), to give away with the practice of stubble burning.
"For stubble burning, there are measures which can be taken but we need to go beyond the theoretical level and practically implement them. We need to tell people to take steps to curb air pollution," asserted an MP during the standing committee meeting.
