URJA organises eGoshti on air pollution issue with community influencers of RWAs

New Delhi: The apex body of RWAs in Delhi, United Residents Joint Action (URJA) on Friday organised a virtual round table, eGoshti, where a discussion on the topic – Clean Air through Residents’ Efforts (CARE) – was done with community influencers from different RWAs in the city. 

The purpose of the webinar was to find out solutions to various problems related to air pollution in Delhi. The round table was attended by 40 individuals who have been working with different RWAs across Delhi. The session was very interactive where both the speakers and participants engaged in fruitful discussion. 

Dr (Prof) Arvind Kumar, leading Chest Surgeon from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital gave a keynote on – Understanding Air Pollution and its Health Impacts. He said, “If we wait for others to take actions and think that they will act to make the situation better, then we are harming ourselves. The entire nation must awaken at individual level and take the lead to bring clean air for a better future.”

The President of URJA, Atul Goyal emphasised on focussing on local area planning to combat the deadly pollution in the city. He said, “We talk about pollution only when the pollution level rises and leave the issue behind as soon as the situation gets a little better. We need to take continuous actions and must find local solutions starting from our own households. We must focus on local area planning with phase wise implementation.”  

Founder Trustee of Lung Care Foundation, Rajiv Khurana also spoke on the occasion. He raised a few key points which were unanimously agreed by the participants. His points included sprinkling of water to subdue dust, adoption of trees, waste segregation at source, set up of sewage treatment plants, environment friendly ways of disposing animal waste, developing green areas and convincing MCDs to create sanitary landfills.

Wing Commander JS Chadda, Chief Convenor of URJA said, “The current situation is such that we can see the poison in the air. We have to work out time -bound plans and actions to make a difference. It may be difficult but not impossible. We as residents can take multiple actions and if we won't act now, we will have to pay the cost and moreover our future generations will have to suffer.”