New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): To check the rising pollution levels across Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar on Thursday flagged off 50 teams of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for conducting field visits to the various hot spots to ensure checks on pollution. The field visits starting on October 15 will continue till February 28 next year.

The teams will inspect the NCR region to locate the major sources of air pollution. Apart from Delhi, they will keep an eye on the hot spots identified in the NCR including Gurugram, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Jhajjar, Panipat and Sonepat in Haryana, and Noida, Ghaziabad and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh as well as Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan.

On the spot reporting will be done by the CPCB teams from the areas wherever pollution is likely to spike. They will monitor the factors causing pollution such as solid waste, construction waste lying along the roads, demolition of buildings, dumping of garbage, open burning of garbage, etc.

The CPCB teams will keep a close watch on incidents of stubble burning and find out if industries and factories were operating in restricted areas. They will coordinate with all the agencies concerned and ensure swift action to curb pollution.