Chandigarh: Haryana has reduced paddy stubble-burning incidents by 91 per cent since 2021, deployed 78 of the 81 mechanised road sweeping machines required under prescribed norms, redeveloped 675 km of targeted roads and strengthened pollution-control monitoring across 1,309 industries, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi said, highlighting the state’s multi-pronged drive to improve air quality.
Rastogi gave details of the measures being taken by Haryana after attending the High-Level Task Force meeting on management of air pollution in Delhi-NCR. The Chief Secretary said Haryana was pursuing a coordinated strategy covering paddy-straw management, road dust, industrial emissions, vehicular pollution, construction and demolition waste, municipal solid waste and expansion of air-quality monitoring.
Haryana generates around 7.97 million tonnes of paddy straw, with the management plan providing for 55 per cent to be handled through in-situ methods, 33 per cent through ex-situ utilisation and 12 per cent as fodder.
96 per cent mechanised sweepers deployed
Haryana has deployed 78 of the 81 large and medium mechanised road sweeping machines required for roads wider than 10 metres, achieving 96 per cent deployment, Rastogi said. Only three machines remain to be deployed.
The state will also focus on smaller mechanised sweeping machines for narrower roads, litter-picking equipment and digital tracking of sweeping machines to ensure effective deployment.
3,211 construction sites on monitoring portal
Haryana currently has 22 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations, while the proposed network comprises 45 stations. Three Real-Time Source Apportionment sites have also been finalised in Haryana — at Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Indira Gandhi University, Rewari.
