Birla Institute of technology, Mesra and IIT_ISM, Dhanbad will provide technical assistance to State’s urban civic bodies and State pollution control board to curb air pollution in the industrial towns and heavily populated cities of the State. 

A video conferencing for the National Clean Air Program was organized by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India on March 26. And, in the presence of Union Minister Prakash Javedkar, the issue of curbing of Air Pollution in Five Municipal Bodies of Jharkhand was discussed in detail. An MoU was signed between Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, Ranchi Municipal Corporation and BIT Mesra at Project Bhawan while IIT-ISM Dhanbad, Dhanbad Municipal Corporation and Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board also inked an MoU in Dhanbad.

Under this MoU, actions will be taken in the direction to reduce the level of air pollution in these 5 cities in Jharkhand. BIT Mesra and IIT-ISM Dhanbad will take the charge giving technical advice to curb air pollution, while planning and implementing it will be the responsibility of the concerned municipal bodies.

Javadekar addressed the Ministers, Secretaries, Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other officials of various departments associated with the State, and informed that the Central Government has taken many revolutionary steps to reduce the level of air pollution in the cities. In this sequence, the government launched BS6 vehicles. He said that there is a special emphasis on public transport under the AMRUT scheme and also appealed to the countrymen to use more public transport, e-rickshaws and bicycles in cities, to deal with rising pollution levels.

He also discussed ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’ and encouraged on segregating the garbage and not using biomass as firewood.

The entire function was commenced through video conferencing, with Mayor Asha Lakra, Deputy Mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya, Member Secretary, Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board Rajeev Lochan Bakshi, Municipal Commissioner Ranchi, Mukesh Kumar, other government officials and several officials of BIT Mesra being present in the project building auditorium., while the others officials from Central government, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur were connected through online modes.