I
Sir,
This refers to the editorial’Polluted City’ (DE,Dec17,2015).It is sad that Jammu, the ‘City of Temples’ once known for fresh air and clean environment,is facing the problem of rising air pollution caused due to emission of smoke and gases from the vehicles and factories.This pollution is bound to cause various respiratory diseases and other problems.There is no doubt that with the rise in the standard of living and atttactive loans offered by the Banks and other financial institutions,the number of vehicles plying on the roads in Jammu is showing a steep rise over the last few years.In most of the cases people donot have parking space as a result of which they park their vehicles on the roads.The Transport Department of our state is ill prepared to deal with the situation and is not taking corrective steps to control the no. of vehicles in the city.The result of all this is that there is congestion and overcrowding on roads and bylanes often leading to traffic jams.The need of the hour is to take urgent and harsh steps to control air pollution before it is too late.The old vehicles need to be phased out in a time bound manner in the city and it must be made mandatory for all to use CNG or LPG as fuel to run vehicles.It must be made mandatory for each driver to produce ‘No Pollution Certificate’. Vehicles run by battery producing zero emmission need to be encouraged for tackling the problem of air pollution.
PublicTransport System needs to be augumented to discourage the private or Personalised transport.Similarly, appropriate measures need to be taken to check pollution caused by factories in and around Jammu .Health of the citizens should be the prime concern of the government and the government should not hesitate in taking harsher decisions to safeguard the health of the citizens.Moreover, plantation drive needs to be launched to cover open space in the city in order to make it a clean and green city.The departments such as Forest Department,Motor Vehicle Department,Industries Department,Pollution Control Board,Traffic Police etc ought to work out collective strategy to check rising pollution level in the state.
Yours etc….
Ashok Sharma,
Flat No 4,Housing Colony,
Udhampur
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