NEW DELHI: The Environment and Forests Ministry may stop halting industrial and government projects for minor lapses of conditions stipulated under the Environment (Protection) Act to escape the blame of slowing down the economic progress.

For instance big dumps built up around the mining areas, pollution of nearby rivers and nullahs and denial of ex-gratia relief to people hit by the wild life depredation are 16 of the 38 violations sought to be dubbed "not so serious" requiring immediate stoppage of work.

New Delhi: After the early 2000s, when Delhi’s air became dramatically clean after the introduction of CNG in public transport, it has once again turned into a deadly cocktail of various pollutants. High levels of particulate matter (PM) that fired the original ‘clean air’ campaign 15 years ago, are no longer the only problem confronting policy makers. Levels of ozone, a product of the breakdown of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in sunlight — and a major cause of respiratory problems — have been going up over the years.

NEW DELHI: A thick haze over Delhi on Friday has set the alarm bells ringing over growing air pollution in the city. While pollution normally rises during winter, Friday's level at places was more than 10 times the prescribed limits.

For instance, levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), the prescribed standard for which is 80 micrograms/cubic metre, were 811 and 760, respectively, at R K Puram and Punjabi Bagh at 7pm. Experts said usually such high pollution levels are not seen till later in the season.

The Centre for Science and Environment had recently pointed out that continued heavy subsidisation of diesel had resulted in people shifting to buying of diesel vehicles. The subsidy on diesel had led to a situation where consumption by private vehicles — passenger cars and SUVs — exceeded consumption by the public transport and agricultural sectors.

To check the increasing pollution levels in the country’s most polluted city, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has decided to study the vehicles’ contribution towards the problem in the city.

For this purpose, the PPCB officials would be collecting samples of ambient air quality from five parts of the city and would study them for 24 hours.

“This way, we would be able to know about the total extent of pollution caused by vehicles and take necessary action accordingly,” said PPCB Senior Environmental Engineer Karunesh Garg.

Lanco Infratech Limited (LITL), has announced that Lanco Tanjore Power Company Limited (Formerly known as Aban Power Company Limited) has won the Rajiv Gandhi Environment Award for Clean Technology for the year 2009-2010 in recognition to its contribution to cleaner production as well as its commitment towards environmental pollution control and resource conservation, by the Ministry.