India’s ‘Clean Air Week’ crackdown resulted in the collection ₹8.3 million in fines

• Over ₹8.3 million was collected within a span of just two days as ‘Clean Air Week’ was implemented in India’s national capital.

• The 52 teams deployed for the monitoring worked in Delhi and the neighbouring cities to keep the pollution levels in check.
  

• The total penalised amount for Friday was recorded to be ₹3.9 million and ₹4.2 million for Saturday with a majority of complaints specific to illegal construction and demolition activities.
  

During ‘Clean Air Week’ the Indian government has shown its seriousness by imposing penalties on people who were found violating the regulations put forward by India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

In fact, over ₹8.3 million was levied in just two days as the directives were brought into force in India’s national capital, New Delhi, and its neighboring areas. The teams deployed under the campaign monitored the implementation measures taken to overcome the deteriorating condition of air pollution, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said.

These teams visited different parts of Delhi and the neighbouring cities including Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and Gurgaon to keep a check on the status of the quick action.

Looks like the citizens are now showing concern towards the environment they’re living in since around 576 complaints were lodged on Friday itself. This resulted in the collection ₹3.9 million in fine by the 52 teams onboard in the national capital.

Come Saturday, fines escalated to ₹4.2 million from the 465 complaints that were registered. CPCB also said that most of the complaints that were registered on Saturday were specific to illegal construction and demolition activities.

This covered 167 of the total complaints registered. But despite air pollution being the most trending topic of concern for the national capital, people have continued with their regular practices of industrial emission and garbage burning. Along with this, a lot of complaints were related to the vehicular emission, traffic congestion and pollution from the generators.

Also the internet has shown a positive response towards the situation since 376 of the total complaints were through the ‘Sameer App’ launched as a government initiative to combat the worsening air pollution levels and around 89 were through social media platforms and e-mail messages.

But there’s a lot to achieve still since the Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded to be 336, which still falls under the ‘very poor’ category according to the CPCB and is still worsening at an alarming rate. The pollution levels were recorded to be the worse this Monday.

The government is working rigorously towards the problem and directed the transport department and traffic police to intensify the checking of polluted vehicles in order to control the pollution levels.