Dona Paula (Goa): Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan today said that “there is no need to be panic” over the air pollution situation in Delhi and “the situation would return to normalcy in next few days”.

Vardhan was down in Goa to participate in the function organized by CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography where he was talking to a group of reporters.

“From yesterday to today, the things have become better (on the air pollution front in Delhi). All this actually gets precipitated because of weather conditions. There was some moisture, which came from Eastern UP and due to wind speed this particulate matter got accumulated in the atmosphere,” he said.

The minister said, “it is expected that in another 24 hours, the wind speed will further improve and with all these measures that are being taken by various governments, the things would be under control.”

He said that the union government is trying to ensure that the graded action plan is implemented in totality.

“I am hopeful that things would be under control. There is no reason to panic for anyone. We should be taking adequate amount of precautions to ensure that we should by and large stay indoors and don’t expose our children to too much of polluted air,” he suggested.

The minister adviced that “We should not allow panic to grow. We should be performing our positive role and positively be contributing to improve the situation.”

“The steps have to taken by Delhi government, they should be doing it in total sincerity and similarly neighboring state governments will have to fulfill their part of the responsibility,” Vardhan said.

“I am sure in the near future, next few days, things would return back to normal,” he added.

The minister said that center is already in touch with all the state governments in the NCR region. “We have once against informed them to implement the graded action plan. There is a detailed action plan whenever such kind of situation on air pollution arises. Everybody has to get into action,” he said.

Vardhan said that the union government is monitoring at its level about the actions needs to be taken to control the air pollution including the closing of Badarpur Thermal Plant, ensuring that all the stone crushers are closed.

“Similarly we have asked the Delhi government that they can sprinkle water on the roads, or use mechanized way for dust removal from the road and therefore improve public transport,” he added.

The minister said that the neighboring states are also instructed to stop crop burning.