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Alarming Rate of Pollution in Metro Cities

Development and progress has enabled faster rate of growth of the urbanization and this urbanization is lead to over consumption of natural resources. The wasteful use or by products of the consumption of the natural resources is pollution.
Pollution in Delhi

Causes of Pollution

There are different causes of pollution, prominently they are related to the consumption of natural resources like burning of coal, petroleum products, cutting of trees etc. In metro cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and other the main cause of pollution is the increase in the number of vehicles. The increase in per capita income and growth of new generation richer class which show off their status through use of the private vehicles. In Delhi, there are many posh areas and you will find that no house owner is without a private vehicle. Many of them have multiple vehicles.
In spite of the fact that Delhi has much better public transport services when compared to other cities, the increase in the number of vehicles in high. Each year number of vehicles is increasing which in turn is increasing pollution.

Lack of Enforcement Agencies

There is severe lack of enforcement agencies for pollution control. The pollution check is often misused through by the vendor who make false certificate on taking bribe or unreasonable money. There is lack of differential rate of taxation on the private vehicles which is enforced in many developed countries like America, Hong Kong and others. The promotion of the use of the public transport will never be a success unless there is curb on the purchase and possession of private vehicles. Government should impose heavy taxation and duty on the private vehicle owners and this money can be used in the extension and development of the public transport for the good of the nation and public as a whole.

Unchecked Pace of Real Estate Development

There should be proper mechanism to check the growth of the real estate which is one of the largest contributor of the pollution in urban areas. The construction work substantially increased the amount of the suspended particles and makes the air unbreathable. If one goes to the NOIDA then it is common to find wind of dust and suffocation in the air due to very high amount of the suspended particles in air. Many of the flats are made and sold for profit and very few of them may be occupied. The inflated demand of the housing by real estate developers is common to notice in many developing cities and sub-urban areas of the metropolitan cities.
Lack of Civic Sense in Public
Lack of civic sense for maintaining and keeping clean environment and surroundings is common in Indian masses. Most of the rich people keep their home clean but colony is not kept clean. The lack of sense of the ownership of the public spaces among masses make is difficult for civic authorities to maintain clean and healthy environment. The Delhi Development Authority can be credited to have maintained a greener Delhi than public want it to be. The politics of the development is common in India and it is well evident in Delhi. In Master Plan of Delhi, Zone O i.e. river bed of Yamuna is kept aloof of any development work but in the name of Common Wealth Games, a large area of the Yamuna riverbed was developed for residential purpose and now there is proposal for opening Green Belt i.e. periphery of Delhi open for development.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The state of the affairs of the urban development is not untouched by politics and the pollution will keep on increasing day by day. The over populated metropolitan city like Delhi is facing numerous problems at same time. Depletion of groundwater, pollution of groundwater and polluted river, decreasing flora and fauna etc.
There should be immediate policy measures to enforce pollution control measures like ban on new vehicles till 2020 etc. Heavy tax on private vehicles. Management of public spaces and colonies by public and civic authorities.
There should be regulation on the rate of the real estate development taking place in cities and urban areas.  

References

1.   Cropper, M., Simon, N. B., Alberini, A., & Sharma, P. K. (1997). The health effects of air pollution in Delhi, India. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, (1860).

2.   Véron, R. (2006). Remaking urban environments: the political ecology of air pollution in Delhi. Environment and Planning A, 38(11), 2093.

3.   Kathuria, V. (2004). Impact of CNG on vehicular pollution in Delhi: a note. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 9(5), 409-417.

4.   Das, S. (2014). The Urban Scene Needs Cleansing. But is it Absolutely Essential?. International Journal of Research, 1(5), 252-257.


5.    Kholi, L. (2015). A Study of Environmental Education, Attitude and Awareness of Students at College Level in Nagaland. International Journal of Research, 2(7), 109-114.

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