Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Wednesday directed all government departments to act on a war footing to combat pollution and announced the formation of a special powers committee to intensify and monitor the capital’s pollution-control efforts.
Chairing an inter-departmental review meeting at the Delhi Secretariat, Gupta said the government was treating pollution as an “emergency mission” and warned that no lapse by agencies responsible for maintaining air quality and cleanliness would be tolerated. Delhi’s AQI stood at 342—“very poor”—according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
The chief minister said a high-level expert committee, comprising senior officials from key departments, IIT experts and environmental scientists, is being set up with enhanced powers to enforce compliance and take corrective action.
She directed the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to issue challans and impose heavy penalties on departments failing to meet dust-control and road-maintenance norms. Gupta expressed strong displeasure over unauthorised road-cutting and poor road restoration by certain agencies and instructed officials to file FIRs against those found violating rules.
“No agency, government or private, will be spared in the fight against pollution,” she said.
All departments have been ordered to identify and repair potholes within 72 hours. The Public Works Department must fix potholes across its 1,400 km network and upload before-and-after photos on a monitoring app. The Delhi Development Authority has been instructed to maintain cleanliness on its roads, clear waste from vacant land and expedite the handover of its markets to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has been told to repair damaged stretches under elevated corridors and strengthen dust-mitigation measures.
Gupta said clean, green and dust-free roads are central to Delhi’s anti-pollution strategy, stressing that delays in on-ground action will not be accepted.
Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, present at the meeting along with senior officials from PWD, MCD, DDA, Delhi Metro, DSIIDC, NBCC and DUSIB, said the 311 Green App is being upgraded as the central platform for monitoring dust hotspots, potholes and brown zones.
A six-month plan is underway to roll out dust-free measures across identified areas. Sirsa added that strict action will be taken against vehicles below BS-IV norms and that e-autos will be prioritised to boost last-mile connectivity and promote Metro usage.
Mist-spray dust mitigation, successful in pilot areas, will now be expanded citywide, he said.
The MCD has been asked to ensure its 8,000-km road network is pothole-free and dust-free, deploying 1,000 vacuum-based litter pickers and 100 mechanical road sweepers within 45 days. Most of the city’s landfill sites are also expected to be cleared in the coming months.
All construction sites must ensure fencing and full compliance with pollution-control norms within 48 hours.
