Haryana's Air Pollution Plan gets high-level scrutiny from Union Minister Bhupender Yadav

Prelims-testable facts

• 01The Union Environment Minister, Shri Bhupender Yadav, emphasized the need for accelerated implementation of pollution control measures in Haryana to reduce pollution levels before the winter season.
• 02The Minister requested that end-to-end paving and greening of roads with local species shrubs/grasses during monsoons be undertaken on priority in Haryana.
• 03All Mechanical Road Sweeping Machines (MRSMs) in Haryana are expected to be geo-tagged by September this year for real-time monitoring of road-cleaning operations.
• 04The deployment of electric buses across the NCR municipal corporations in Haryana should be expedited, with significant gaps in the existing fleet noted by the Minister.
• 05Haryana has been encouraged to expedite the issuance of No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for transfer of eligible End-of-Life (EoL) vehicles outside the NCR.
• 06The Parivartan Scheme aims to replace old polluting vehicles with electric vehicles, and Haryana is expected to implement this scheme faster.
• 07The Union Environment Minister has called for stricter enforcement to ensure substantial reduction in pollution levels before the onset of the winter season.

Trap alerts

• Most people think that air pollution action plans are only implemented by state governments, but actually they require cooperation and coordination between central and state authorities.
• Most people think that electric vehicles are a new concept, but actually they have been promoted in India for several years under various schemes, including the Parivartan Scheme.