The Government is to come up with its own study with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to assess the trends and impact of pollution on human health. Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Anil Madhav Dave, said here today that the Government is taking all necessary steps to mitigate air pollution. He gave a detailed account of various sources of pollution and actions taken by the Government for their management. Giving an account of recent steps taken by the Government, the Minister referred to the notification on Graded Response Action Plan to address different levels of air pollution in National Capital Region. Referring to several media reports, linking air pollution specifically to deaths, Mr. Dave said there is a need to exercise caution in interpretation of these studies.
The Government is closely monitoring the trend of various air pollutants across the country under the National Air Quality Monitoring Programme. The Monitoring network comprises manual stations spread over 300 cities in 29 States and 6 Union territories. Apart from manual stations, there are 54 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations that cover 33 cities in 12 states. The monitoring network is being expanded to cover all metro cities and capital towns. The result of the monitoring shows that, while the levels of Particulate Matters have a fluctuating trend, the value of SO2 is generally within permissible limits, while the value of NO2 is fluctuating and slightly above the permissible limits. The value of Particulate Matter is the main concern and the Government has been taking all necessary measures to mitigate this problem in a systematic manner.