Efforts of the Central Pollution Control Board are resulting in more ‘good days’ in terms of the environment in the National Capital Region of Delhi.  Giving details at a Press Conference in New Delhi today, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, said that a high-level meeting of the five States to address the problem of air pollution in Delhi, due to stubble burning will be held soon. To control stubble burning, the government has given more than 20 thousand machines to farmers in Punjab and Haryana at a cost of about Rs.1150 crore, the Minister said.

Javadekar said ÂRecognition of the existence of a problem is the beginning of the solution of the problem. The pollution problem of Delhi-NCR started aggravating since 2006 and was not recognized until 2014. In 2015, under the supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Air Quality Index (AQI) was launched. Today, 113 AQI monitoring stations are present in Delhi-NCR and 29 more are to be installed soonÂ. The Minister highlighted that out of 273 days till 30th September in 2019, a number of ÂGoodÂ, ÂSatisfactory and ÂModerate days were 165 as against 104 in 2016.

The Minister further informed that Bharat Stage Six (BS-VI), is a revolutionary step in the transformation of fuels. He added that there has been an 80% reduction in Particulate Matter emissions and a 30% reduction in Nitrogen Oxide emissions in BS-IV heavy-duty diesel vehicles compared with BS III norms. Nearly ?60,000 Cr were spent on switching over to BS-VI fuels. ÂThe Country will shift to BS-VI vehicular emission norms from BS-IV by April 2020. BS-VI petrol/diesel is already available in Delhi/NCRÂ, said Javadekar.

Pointing out various efforts undertaken to control pollution, Javadekar stated: “From today onwards, 46 teams of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) are taking stock of pollution levels in Delhi-NCR and will take appropriate action wherever neededÂ.