CM Yogi directs ban on garbage burning in urban areas

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath on Thursday directed Municipal Corporations to implement a complete ban on garbage burning in urban areas.

Among the other measures, Adityanath ordered water sprinkling on roads, ban on burning of crop residue, and creating awareness on pollution in rural areas. The UP CM directed to run an awareness campaign till 15th January on air pollution, through FM/community radio and also to not burn garbage or crop residue.

The chief minister further directed to take steps to deal with air pollution in order to create artificial rain using the latest technology in Lucknow, with the help of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. Garbage burning is one of the major contributors to pollution in Delhi. Burning of garbage releases dioxins, a kind of environmental pollutants, in the air.

They belong to the so-called dirty dozen - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Burning waste also leads to an increased presence of chlorides in the air, which weakens the immune system, irritates lungs and causes respiratory disorders. Biomass and waste burning accounts for 30% of Delhi's pollution in winter, and 18% in summer, a recent IIT-Kanpur study found.