New Delhi, Dec 8 (KNN) Observing deteriorating air quality of Delhi, the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority mulling to ban industrial, construction and demolition activities at major pollution hotspots in Delhi-NCR.

The Central Pollution Control Board-led task force on November 22 recommended EPCA  to ban that industrial, construction and demolition activities in major hotspot areas when air quality levels reach 'severe' category.

Over this matter, in a recently held meeting with various oil and gas companies, such as Adani gas, Haryana City Gas, IGL and GAIL, EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal asked the reason for not being able to switch to cleaner sources of energy for their operations. 

Concerning the situation, EPCA member Sunita Narain, said “We are seriously considering a proposal from the CPCB to shut down industries in the area where the pollution reaches severe."

She said that the authority will write to industries asking for a breakup of their pricing of piped natural gas and what are the terms on which they supply it to the consumers.

The representatives of the firms contended that switching to electricity or gas is proving to be expensive in comparison to coal. 

Narain said, "We will keep pushing for switching to gas as there is no other option. We will also push the government to reduce VAT to make it cheaper by 20 per cent for industries." 

On December 4, the CPCB-led taskforce identified 21 areas vulnerable to high pollution in Delhi-NCR and directed the respective municipal corporations to take "focused actions" to mitigate the effects. 

The taskforce has identified 15 pollution hotspots in Delhi that includes Anand Vihar, Bawana, CRRI Mathura Road, DTU, Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Dwarka-Sector 8, Jahangirpuri, Mundaka, NSIT Dwarka, Narela, Okhla Phase-2, R K Puram, Rohini, Shadipur, Wazirpur. 

The task force directed the authorities to carry out strict inspection at Loni Bhopura in Ghaziabad, from where repeated complaints of violating environmental norms have been received, according to the minutes of a meeting of the taskforce held in Delhi. 

In NCR areas outside Delhi, six hotspots that have been identified are Sector-16A in Faridabad, Vikas Sadan in Gurgaon, Vasundhara in Ghaziabad, Knowledge Park-III in Greater Noida, Sector-125 in Noida and RIICO Industrial Area-III in Bhiwadi. 

Further, EPCA Chairman said that he would inspect burning of industrial waste in Mundka and strictly penalize the entities responsible for it.

Since the beginning of winters, Delhi has been battling alarming levels of pollution, making the city air unhealthy for the survival.