Ghaziabad yet to identify pollution hotspots, utilise pollution abatement funds

Ghaziabad: Although the graded response action plan (Grap) came into effect from October 1, Ghaziabad city administrators are still trying to identify pollution hotspots. The city is also lacking in terms of utilisation of funds it received for air quality improvement, said sources.

Last year, the UP Pollution Control Board (UP-PCB) identified 10 major pollution hotspots across the city along with the respective polluting sources.

The 10 identified hotspots were Sahibabad, Kaushambi, Raj Nagar Extension, Delhi-Meerut Road, Loni, Bhopra-Delhi border, GT Road, Sanjay Nagar, Vasundhara and Siddharth Vihar.

“This year, we will soon ready the list of hotspots and our teams are working for identification, including the traffic police who are identifying traffic hotspots. It is likely that the list will be ready by next week. At present, the air quality index has improved due to the rain,” said Utsav Sharma, UP-PCB regional officer.

Ghaziabad is among the 16 “non-attainment” cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh and its pollution levels generally remain on the higher side during the onset of winter. Cities are declared “non-attainment” if they do not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter (PM10) or nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over a period of five years.

Earlier in April, the city ranked as the second-most polluted city in the world after Bhiwadi in Rajasthan on the World Air Quality Report-2021. The annual report, prepared by Switzerland-based organisation IQAir, surveyed 6,475 cities across the world.

Meanwhile, worries remain over the utilisation of 121 crore funds which the Ghaziabad municipal corporation received in the 2020-21 financial year. An amount of 60.5 crore each was marked for pollution abatement measures and solid waste infrastructure improvement. The funds were received from the Fifteenth Finance Commission.

“The utilisation of funds for air quality is 44% complete while it is 60% in case of solid waste management. The purchase of equipment is decided by a committee, comprising several district officials, which takes a final decision on spending and procurement,” said Nitin Gaur, the newly-appointed Ghaziabad municipal commissioner.

The officials said that the data for utilisation of funds was not readily available.

The funds were aimed for paving of dusty road patches, development of more greenery in the city’s 200 parks, development of a ‘city forest’ near the New Bus Adda Metro station, installation of 30 big air filters in major markets and commercial areas, procurement of six anti-smog guns of 6,000 litre capacity, among others.

Meanwhile, environmentalists said that a probe is needed for the non-utilisation of funds while the city residents continuously suffer high pollution levels, especially during the winter season.

“It is surprising that funds meant for air pollution abatement have remained unutilised. The agencies have never sought public opinion about measures which can be adopted in the city. Further, the details of unutilised and utilised funds should be made available in the public domain. With the Grap period underway and no pollution hotspots defined yet, it tells us about the professionalism of officials and their seriousness to tackle air pollution,” said Akash Vashishtha, a Ghaziabad-based environmentalist and a lawyer.

UP-PCB officials said that utilisation of funds should be done in a timely manner; otherwise, future funding may get impacted for Ghaziabad city.

“There is no transparency and we must know why the funds were not utilised despite Ghaziabad city faring badly in terms of air pollution,” said Rajendra Tyagi, Raj Nagar councillor.