Haryana Government has turned aside the recent report of the World Health Organisation in which Faridabad is placed at second place in the list of most polluted cities in the world.

Rejecting the claims made in the report, Haryana Environment and Climate Change Minister, Vipul Goel on Friday clarified that the source of the data on which the report is based is not clear.

The latest WHO ranking of cities based on ambient air quality released on May 2 had stated that 14 of the 15 most polluted cities in the world are in India.

Kanpur was ranked the most polluted, followed by Faridabad and Varanasi on the second and third spots, respectively. The national capital, Delhi was on the sixth spot.

Commenting on the WHO report, the Environment Minister said that the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has been monitoring the data since 2010 through Continuous Air Ambient Quality Monitoring Station in Faridabad and Gurugram.

He said, “As per the details available with the Board, the PM 2.5 value ((particulate matters less than 2.5 microns) of both the cities are being monitored regularly since 2013. These values increase above 170 only during a brief season, i.e. during a few days around Diwali, crop harvesting season during which residue burning is reported and peak winter, when the temperature is low and wind velocity is minimum.”

Therefore, it is not justified to claim that the average pm 2.5 value is above 170 in Faridabad, he added.

The Minister went onto say that the report also claims city like Srinagar as polluted, which raises suspicions on the source of the data.

Even Patiala's air pollution level has been placed quite high based on PM 2.5 values recorded from 2010 to 2016, and Punjab too claims, it never monitored the PM 2.5 values and the sources are not known to its own Pollution Control Board, said he.

Blaming the national capital for air pollution in Faridabad, Goel said that Faridabad is affected mostly due to the pollution in neighbouring Delhi. Its own sources include mainly vehicles and construction dust and Delhi's pollution is considerably high with additional sources from municipal solid waste burning going on almost continuously as witnessed during the past years, he said.

Delhi's pollution level has always remained higher than these two cities as indicated by our reports. Now, placing Faridabad above Delhi is not even logical, he added.

Earlier in the day, Haryana Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu had also blamed the neighboring Delhi for the problem of pollution in NCR. The issue was raised during the meeting of Chief Minister, Ministers and senior officers of Haryana with 15th Finance Commission here.

Meanwhile, the Environment Minister also said that the Haryana has already prepared a detailed action plan to contain air pollution in the entire state.

Highlighting various steps taken by the State Government to curb the problem of air pollution, the Minister said that diesel vehicles of more than 10 years old have already been banned from registration in Faridabad, Gurugram and Jhajjar districts of Haryana.

The NHAI, HUDA and Public Works Departments have been directed by the HSPCB to contain dust during their construction activities. Besides, teams have been constituted by HUDA, Urban Local Bodies, HSPCB and District Administration to monitor the violations and penalties are imposed on construction projects, burning of garbage and violations pollution control norms for vehicles and for not meeting the construction material carriage norms.

Mechanical Sweeping machines and vacuum machines are being used in Gurugram and Faridabad for cleaning purposes to reduce road dust, he added.

Goel also said that it is reviewed almost every month at the level of Chief Secretary and progress in this regard is being monitored.

He also informed that the government has already ordered for installation of air quality monitoring stations and we will have 19 CAAQMS being installed across the state including Faridabad and Gurugram, where the installation would start in one month.

The state is also planning to carry out a source attribution study with the help of various experts so that the action plan can be put into action accordingly, he added.

Haryana Govt trashes WHO report on polluted cities