Tackle traffic snarls & curb noise pollution, BMC, cops told

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board issued a notice to the BMC commissioner and the traffic police commissioner to tackle traffic congestion as it was causing environmental pollution. The notice was issued under the Environment Protection Act following a complaint by former corporator and activist Nicholas Almeida.      The Andheri resident had earlier complained to joint commissioner traffic, Vivek Phansalkar, to remove illegal parking in Andheri (East) that was leading to traffic congestion. Almeida had also filed a complaint with the high-powered committee set up by the Bombay high court to resolve the issue. "Since no one seems to be interested in  resolving the problem, I complained to the MPCB and the National Green Tribunal about how traffic congestion resulted in noise and air pollution and was harming citizens' health,'' said Almeida. Advocate Godfrey Pimenta, representing Almeida, said the Green Tribunal rejected their complaint as the data to back their complaint could not reach in time. "However, it allowed us to file a fresh application, and we are in the process of doing so. We hope the authorities will now do something to resolve the issue,'' he said.      Sumaira Abdulali, convenor of Awaaz Foundation, said the government fails to acknowledge that many diseases originate due to pollution. "We have new vehicles with better emission norms. The emission per car may have gone down but then number of vehicles has gone up, so overall pollution has not decreased but rather increased."