Many districts of Haryana are often in the grip of severe air pollution. In such a situation, it is important to know the level of air pollution so that people can take precautionary measures for protection…but the air quality monitoring network in Haryana is down. 29 air quality monitoring stations installed in various districts of the state are useless for the last six months. The level of air pollution is not being recorded in these stations. The tenders for all these stations have expired and the department could not issue new tenders. After six months, the department has started the tender process. Now it may take about one to one and a half months for these stations to start.
29 monitoring stations have been set up by the Pollution Control Board to measure air pollution in cities. Air pollution data is recorded from these stations only. Environment Minister Rao Narbir Singh said, the tender process for all these stations is going on. It is expected that all these stations will start by June. Officials will be asked for an answer as to why there is a delay in this.
Officials of Haryana Pollution Control Board have also admitted that this is a big lapse. When the contract of the company that maintains the stations was about to end, these tenders should have been done before that. Another official said that the department had earlier decided to extend the tender of the existing company. Later it was decided to start the tender process afresh. Due to this, it has taken time. The stations of Ambala, Hisar, Bhiwani were closed in December itself, while those of Rohtak, Bahadurgarh and Jhajjar were closed in January.
Why is it necessary to run the air quality monitoring station?
Recently, a huge cloud of dust was looming over South Haryana. The air quality level had increased in all the districts of NCR including Delhi. Experts in Delhi and Noida issued precautions regarding this, but no such warning was issued in Haryana. If the level of air pollution was known, people would have started taking precautions on their own. Wheat straw is also burnt in large quantities in Haryana. This also increases air pollution, but this time it could not be known how much pollution is there in which district.
Professor Ravindra Khaiwal of Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGI, said, due to lack of air quality data, there can be a gap in data quality. This can cause problems in understanding the annual trend. At the same time, no guidelines can be issued to the general public on time. In such a situation, it is necessary to have air pollution data.
AQI remains above 350 in these districts after Diwali
After Diwali, air pollution reaches a serious condition in nine districts of Haryana. Last year, the average AQI was recorded above 350 in Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, Rohtak, Jind, Rewari, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Bahadurgarh, Sirsa, Fatehabad. In the month of November, AQI was recorded above 500 for three days in Gurugram, Faridabad. Due to air pollution, schools also had to be closed in some districts later. In such a situation, if the level of pollution is not known in a state like Haryana, then how will precautionary measures be taken?
Last year, two cities of the state were also among the most polluted
Air pollution increases during Diwali. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, last year, Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat, Rohtak, Jind, Rewari, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Bahadurgarh, Sirsa, Rohtak of Haryana were among the most polluted cities. The air quality index of these cities was recorded between 350 and 500. Out of these, only Gurugram has an air quality station. At the same time, according to the report released by Swiss air quality technology company IQAir, two cities of Haryana were among the 20 most polluted cities in the world, which included Gurugram and Faridabad.
