Special Chief Secretary, Environment, Science & Technology, Rajat Kumar, conducted a review meeting at the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) on implementation of an action plan for reduction in air pollution, e-waste and construction & demolition waste processing, here on Monday.
During the meeting, a presentation was made by an academic from IIT-Kanpur, Mukesh Sharma, on source apportionment study carried in the city, to identify the contribution of different sources to the particulate matter of sizes less than 10 and 2.5 microns.
Major sources identified by the study are road dust, vehicular emissions, open burning, secondary pollutants and industries.
The presentation was followed by deliberations about the additional measures to be taken for immediate reduction in the particulate matter. A decision was taken to conduct a series of workshops to brainstorm on the action plan.
Dr. Rajat Kumar said the Centre is releasing funds under the 15th Finance Commission to Hyderabad for taking up important activities to reduce the air pollution.
The Air Quality Monitoring Committee (AQMC), based on the results of the study, will allocate the funds to different activities in proportion of the source contribution, he said.
Citing reduction in air pollution in Nalgonda town owing to various interventions, Mr.Rajat Kumar said the focus is now on Hyderabad.
He also reviewed the implementation of the e-Waste Management Rules, and noted that there has been improvement in e-waste collection from 30,000 tonnes to 44,000 tonnes per year thanks to pursuance of the bulk consumers.
Main challenge still remains with e-waste collection from domestic sector and also with training of the informal sector for scientific processing of the same.
Dr.Rajat Kumar instructed TSPCB to increase awareness programmes through different media for sensitising all sections and improving the collection mechanism from the domestic sector.
The construction and demolition waste management was also reviewed, and it was noted that the total capacity has been increased from 1000 tonnes per day to 2000 tonnes per day.
Dr. Rajat Kumar instructed that the C&D processed material should be made mandatory for re-use in different projects and made suggestion for study of such policies in other States.
The meeting was attended by a team from IIT-Kanpur, Member Secretary of the Board Neetu Prasad, and others.
