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As the Capital's air quality deteriorated, dipping into the ‘severe’ category for the first time this season, Delhi's environment and forest minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa spoke to HT’s Jasjeev Gandhiok, highlighting the government’ plans to tackle the air pollution problem.

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It has been around eight months since your government took charge and this is the first winter for you as environment minister. What have we learnt about the air pollution problem in Delhi so far?

The air pollution problem in Delhi can be divided into four main parts: vehicular pollution, dust pollution, pollution from industries, and pollution from waste. We first identified the problem and divided it into these four broad verticals. To tackle vehicular emissions from dirty fuels, we are gradually switching to an electric fleet, be it buses or e-rickshaws and e-autos for last mile connectivity. Secondly, we are looking to improve the conditions of roads by doing patchwork and recarpeting to tackle dust pollution. As part of this exercise, the Delhi Police has also identified close to 100 hot-spots where either traffic, industries or waste are creating pollution and we are looking to address the issues there by creating a proper plan.

In addition to recarpeting, around 91 mechanised road sweepers are presently deployed — while we are carrying out greening or paving brown areas in the city. Construction sites are under surveillance and we are also installing anti-smog guns on high-rise buildings. Industrial areas are also a source and we have 27 such areas which are unauthorised. The process to regularise them began under the Sheila Dikshit government but we are now completing it. More than 1,200 industries have been found to be polluting and we have taken action against them too. All construction sites with an area of over 500 sq m will be monitored online by the DPCC (Delhi Pollution Control Committee) and we also have 1,812 enforcement teams on-ground to tackle various sources of pollution. Recently, we have experimented with cloud seeding too.