Patna: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi promised better air monitoring in Bihar and also asked for affordable technology to fight the menace of pollution.
"We have given brick kiln-owners a year to install new technology to reduce air pollution or lose their licence," Sushil said. "But it is going to cost kiln-owners Rs 30 to 40 lakh each to install the new technology. If three years later it again becomes obsolete, will we again ask them to install more advanced technology? Technology to make air quality better must also be affordable."
The deputy chief minister was speaking at the national conference on air pollution organised by the Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED).
Government representatives from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh had come to discuss a regional action plan in this regard. Uttar Pradesh minister for environment, Dara Singh Chauhan, and Jharkhand minister for food and civil supplies minister, Saryu Roy, could not attend but sent their pre-recorded messages. "Next time we will try and see that ministers come to Patna and discuss the issue rather than just send messages," Modi said in a lighter vein.
He stressed that alternatives must be provided to the common man. "The air pollution in Delhi is directly related to burning of hay in the fields," Modi said. "I have seen farmers adamant about continuing their practice even if they have to go to jail. How many of them can you put behind bars? Tell them what can be done with hay which would not harm the quality of air." He said solutions to environment problems cannot be arrived at by blindly aping the west. "The solutions must be integrated with our culture, which treats rivers and plants as gods."
CEED CEO Ramapati Kumar stressed that poor air quality was causing a public health nightmare in the region and it was time for the three states to get together and draw up an action plan to meet the challenge. Others who spoke on the occasion included ADRI member-secretary Shaibal Gupta, environment expert Kunal Sharma and chief environment officer of UP Pollution Control Board, Rajeev Upadhyay.
The fact-sheet distributed on the occasion showed the Indo-Gangetic plain as the global hotspot of air pollution, hosting half of the 20 most polluted cities in the world according to WHO. Only 1 per cent of the 36 million city dwellers in the region breath clean air and states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand are the worst sufferers.
