Dust control, checks on farm fires: Haryana draws up winter action plan

Gurgaon: Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) unveiled its winter action plan on Tuesday with the aim of tackling pollutants as the colder months approach. The plan includes promoting use of public transport, ensuring timely maintenance of vehicles, and minimising construction activities.
The state will also focus on identifying and repairing major roads before winter, hiring additional mechanised sweepers and sprinklers, and planting 1.3 crore saplings.It also plans to manage 73.1 lakh MT of paddy straw through in-situ and ex-situ strategies and reduce stubble burning.
The action plan takes into account the fact that over the past three years, PM2.5 and PM10 have emerged as the primary pollutants in Haryana. The three-year annual average of PM2.5 in various districts is between 70µg/m3 and 80µg/m3, significantly higher than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of 40µg/m3 .
Similarly, the annual average PM10 level from 2021 to 2023 in various districts falls between 150µg/m3 and 170µg/m3, more than double the national standard of NAAQS of 60µg/m3, according to calculations by the pollution control board. "All districts have been instructed to implement measures as per the action plan from now onwards," HSPCB chairman P Raghavendra Rao told TOI.
Officials stated that the action plan will address local sources of pollution such as dust generated from traffic on roads and construction and demolition sites, emissions from industries and vehicles, and burning of waste.
"In this context, in 2024-25, the state will focus on undertaking preventive maintenance of all sprinkling and sweeping machines to ensure they are in working condition, efficiently operating existing sprinkling and sweeping machines to minimise resuspension of road dust due to movement of vehicles and procuring new machines… and surprise inspections and test runs," the HSPCB plan stated.
Furthermore, the state govt also plans to leverage the Centre's ‘Nagar Van Yojana', under which urban local bodies will receive assistance to establish nagar vans (city forests) in 10-50 hectares of land and vatikas (gardens/parks) in 1-10 hectares of land.
For 2023-24, Haryana achieved 88% of its plantation target of 98 lakh plants and shrubs. After a detailed identification exercise, nearly 76% of the identified pollution hotspots have already been rectified and converted to green spots by urban local bodies and other agencies.
HSPCB aims to undertake measures which, to the extent possible, prevent the AQI forecast from breaching the thresholds for stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). To achieve this, pollution sources in the state must be abated with greater intensity, officials said. This is because in winter, due to temperature inversion, pollutants tend to remain suspended in the atmosphere at lower heights.
To ensure the effective implementation and success of the winter action plan, a review and monitoring mechanism will be established, officials said. A high-level committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of the HSPCB member secretary, comprising officials from key govt departments, experts, industry stakeholders, and academic institutions.
"When it comes to air pollution, citizens are as much a part of the problem as they are of the solution. The state will launch a 360-degree information and awareness campaign urging people to avoid unnecessary use of vehicles and choose public transport wherever possible, and scrap personal vehicles which are nearing end-of-life," the action plan stated.
Experts, meanwhile, said the state should work on pollution mitigation throughout the year, not just in the winter months. "Though Haryana's action plan is very precise and has details of what has been done last year and what is planned for this year, several works which were supposed to be done by municipalities are still pending. These will add to the winter woes. Every year, the broken roads and uncontrolled C&D waste dumping contribute heavily to air pollution. Authorities should not wait for a winter action plan to inform them of what steps need to be taken to mitigate air pollution," Shubhansh Tiwari, research associate at CSE, said.
Panel to identify hotspots
Haryana chief secretary TVSN Prasad urged deputy commissioners on Tuesday to take decisive action towards making the state a stubble-burning-free state.
During a virtual meeting with divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and superintendent of police from Fatehabad, Jind, Kaithal, Ambala, Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Hisar, Sonipat, and Yamunanagar, Prasad directed them to form a four-member committee at the block level to identify hot spots and implement necessary measures to prevent stubble burning incidents.
This committee will include the SDM/BDO/tehsildar concerned, an agriculture development officer, and an officer from Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar and the police department. The committee is required to submit a daily report to the monitoring and coordination department by 5pm.
"I will personally monitor the situation every single day," said the chief secretary, emphasising that not a single case of stubble burning will be tolerated under any circumstances.